A former Turkish Air Force pilot serving an aggravated life sentence over a 2016 coup attempt told judges she was threatened with rape and harm to her family while in police custody, according to court testimony newly reported by the TR724 news website.
Former Turkish Air Force 1st Lt. Kerime Yıldırım told the court that while in police custody she was taken into dark rooms, forced to face a wall and threatened with rape and harm to her family during questioning.
Yıldırım made the allegations during her defense before the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court in 2018. She said she had flown an unarmed search-and-rescue helicopter on orders from her superiors after personnel were warned of a possible terrorist attack.
Yıldırım said she communicated openly with air traffic controllers using the helicopter’s regular call sign and asked the court to examine flight and communications records that she said would support her account.
The coup attempt killed 251 people and wounded more than 2,000. Many military personnel later testified that they had reported to their units after receiving warnings of a possible terrorist attack and were unaware they were being drawn into the coup attempt. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the faith-based Gülen movement of orchestrating the coup, an accusation the movement strongly denies. A decade later, key aspects of the coup, including its operational planning and chain of command, remain unresolved.
Yıldırım, an instructor pilot stationed in Yalova province, said she flew to İstanbul early on July 15 to transport security personnel and aides accompanying then-air force commander Abidin Ünal and other senior commanders back to Yalova. She was scheduled to return to İstanbul the following morning to pick up Ünal from a military facility in Fenerbahçe and fly him to Atatürk Airport. She flew back to İstanbul that evening and went home to rest.
Later that evening, Yıldırım said, Col. Hüseyin Ergezen ordered her to prepare the helicopter for a flight following a warning of a possible terrorist attack. She said she complied, believing the order was related to the alert and unaware that a coup attempt was underway.
Yıldırım said a group of soldiers boarded her helicopter but that she was not told their destination. When air traffic controllers asked where she was heading, she contacted Ergezen and was directed toward Kadıköy, realizing only as she approached the area that the soldiers were being taken to the TRT state broadcaster.
She later flew toward the Bosporus Bridge to evacuate soldiers she had been told were in danger, a mission she said she understood to be a search-and-rescue.
Yıldırım said Maj. Ahmet Kaya, one of the soldiers she evacuated, told her they had been deployed after receiving a high-priority military message warning of possible terrorist attacks across the country and showed her the message form.
She said the helicopter came under fire as she approached the area and temporarily lost engine power.
Yıldırım also challenged news reports portraying her as an F-16 pilot, saying she flew an unarmed UH-1H helicopter used for transport and search-and-rescue missions.
She asked the court to examine air traffic control recordings, military flight logs and phone records, saying they would support her account and show that she had not coordinated with people accused of organizing the coup attempt. She also said she did not flee after the failed coup and voluntarily reported to police.
Yıldırım also asked the court to investigate what she described as an unusual, non-routine VIP flight to TRT involving then-air training commander Hasan Küçükakyüz and another UH-1H helicopter, saying military records could establish the details of the flight.
The İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court convicted Yıldırım in August 2018 of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced her to aggravated life imprisonment. The court handed down aggravated life sentences to 35 defendants and life sentences to 67 others on the same charge. An appeals court later upheld the conviction.
A total of 289 coup-related trials have been concluded, with 4,891 people convicted, according to Justice Ministry figures. Of those convicted, 1,634 received aggravated life sentences, 1,366 were sentenced to life in prison and 1,891 received sentences of varying lengths. The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld 236 of the 271 case files sent to it.
