A former Turkish military officer serving a life sentence for his alleged involvement in a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 died in prison on Friday after suffering a heart attack, the TR724 news website reported.
Erkan Şirin, a 43-year-old former naval officer, had been imprisoned in central Turkey’s Kayseri province since 2016. At the time of the coup attempt, he was serving in the Coast Guard Command and was later accused of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order,” “membership in a terrorist organization” and “violating the chain of command on the night of the coup.”
A total of 28 military personnel, including Şirin, were sentenced to triple aggravated life imprisonment in what became known as the “Coast Guard Command Case.”
Şirin’s death sparked grief among human rights advocates, who said a young man had died in prison while waiting for justice to prevail.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a deputy from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), in a social media post said Turkish authorities had “devastated people” and “suffocated them” in the aftermath of a post-coup purge.
Following the failed coup, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, and more than 24,000 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
The purge has led to severe prison overcrowding, resulting in the imprisonment of hundreds of ill inmates. According to the Human Rights Association (IHD), at least 1,412 prisoners, including hundreds with serious health conditions, are held in Turkish prisons under conditions that worsen their medical issues. Additionally, 1,026 inmates died in Turkish prisons between July 2023 and December 2024.
