As Turkey relentlessly pursues those behind the bloody coup attempt on July 15 that claimed 246 lives, more and more people linked to the coup invoke have been invoking a legal clause to confess their role in the coup, to avoid hefty prison terms.
One of them was Brigadier General Abdulkerim Unlu, detained on the night of the attempted coup when military officers linked to the Gulenist Terror Group tried to topple the government and kill the president. Now, in exchange for a lenient sentence, Unlu, who describes himself as a “former” member of FETO, has admitted his connection to the coup officers and gave information on his meeting with a senior officer who had assigned him a role in the coup.
The detained military officer told interrogators that Mehmet Partigoç, an officer of the same rank as his, met him in the capital Ankara on July 14 and handed him orders for the coup and his presumed role.
Partigöç was heading the Personnel, Planning and Management Department, a key post at the Chief of Staff office, when he was detained for the aiding coup attempt. He was reportedly among officers holding Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar hostage at a military headquarters in Ankara. Partigöç, however, has denied any involvement in the coup attempt.Abdülkerim Ünlü was commander of a military unit in the eastern province of Tunceli during the coup attempt and was captured in Elazığ, another eastern province, where he arrived after he traveled from Ankara on July 15. Ünlü said he was on a leave when he traveled to Ankara and met Partigöç.
“He gave me several documents. One was a written order showing I would be appointed as commander of Elazığ after martial law was established and the another document had the names of the military personnel I would command,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ünlü has applied twice to invoke the “remorse law” that might allow defendants to have their sentences reduced in exchange for providing information on the terrorist group, afterward however, he withdrew his confession. He claimed he broke ties with FETÖ years ago.
While police were carrying a search of his possessions, officers found a note reading “destroy the file in my room” and discovered the file mentioned in the note hidden inside an air conditioner in his room at the military lodgings. The file had documents allegedly given by Partigöç and helped police detain dozens in Turkey’s Elazığ, who were linked to FETÖ and would work with Ünlü following the putsch attempt.
