Eight years after the July 15 coup attempt: A survivor's story

Despite the passage of time, families who experienced profound loss and suffering on that dark night, which saw martyrs of all ages, continue to remember their loved ones and the events that transpired.

On the night of the treacherous coup attempt, Talhat Engiz, responding to a call from Sait Şahin, then Vice President of HÜDA PAR, took to the streets. Engiz rallied his community and relatives to resist the coup plotters, becoming one of the organizers of the resistance that night.

Engiz recounted how he learned about the coup attempt from phone calls from his wife and friends around 9:00 PM on July 15. "I reached home and, upon watching television, received the news from our Party Spokesperson Sait Şahin, who said, 'Take to the squares.' So, I took my 16-17-year-old son and went straight to the square. We got into my car and drove to Sarıgazi, where we joined the crowds heading towards Taşdelen. I parked my car and walked 5 kilometers to get there. It was quite crowded; I waited there for about an hour, informing my brothers and friends of the situation. I directed them to the First and Second Bridges, maintaining constant contact to organize our resistance."

Recalling the events on the bridge, Engiz said: "Every ten seconds, a sniper would shoot someone. They were targeting people with precision, and the sound of gunfire would cause thousands to take cover. Two days later, I realized that without noticing, I had repeatedly thrown myself to the ground, resulting in extensive bruising on both sides of my body."

"They kept firing bullets until around 3-4 in the morning. There were many injured, and ambulances were constantly coming and going. During this time, we performed the night and morning prayers in congregation under gunfire. After a while, the gunfire intensified. They hit a police vehicle, resulting in significant injuries and deaths. A friend was injured there; we carried the injured to the ambulances. The ambulances couldn't advance due to fear as the coup plotters were targeting them."

Engiz described how the coup plotters' resistance eventually broke before sunrise. "After the FETO terror network injured and martyred many people, their resistance broke. We were among the first hundred people to rush to the tanks and climb on them. We collected the weapons and secured the area. With the sunrise, we learned that a friend of ours, a member of HÜDA PAR, had been martyred. We left the square, attended his funeral, and helped transfer injured acquaintances to other hospitals. For nearly two months after July 15, we camped in Kısıklı from 5 PM to 2-3 AM, sometimes until morning prayers, to ensure the squares remained occupied."

Engiz noted that about 30% of the people around the tanks were Muslims in turbans and robes. "The people were entirely Muslim, and from night till morning, there were only takbirs and salawats. It was a Muslim people showing Islamic resistance against oppression and the terror network. We didn't see anything else that night. The impression we got from those who took to the squares with that spiritual feeling was entirely Islamic; all Muslim communities were there."

Speaking about his grievances due to his Islamic identity, both before and after July 15, Engiz said: "In 2005, I was a member of Mustazaf-Der and was detained by FETO police. After the detention, they sentenced me to 1 year in prison. Two years later, the court sentenced me to 6 years and 3 months. When I sent the case to the Court of Cassation, I saw that the judges who sentenced me were working in the 9th Chamber of the Court of Cassation. They upheld the sentence, and after July 15, I was imprisoned for 3 more years. Unfortunately, while we were resisting FETO and imperialists, the government did not see some of our grievances, and we repeatedly communicated this to both the Constitutional Court and the government. The judges who sentenced me are now either in prison or have fled abroad, and I served 3 years in prison because of their sentences."

At the end of his speech, Engiz said: "I am a Muslim, and it doesn't matter when it happens; we will always be there. We were in the squares during the February 28 process, in 2005, sentenced in 2012, and aggrieved again. After July 15, we were aggrieved once more. All of this is because of our Islamic sensitivity. We are Muslims, and whenever we see such oppression, with God's permission, we will be the first to take to the streets again. We will do whatever Allah commands. As a Muslim people, we will do whatever is required of us without hesitation and fulfill our duties again." (ILKHA)