17 generals were captured

Airforce Commander General Abidin Ünal, who learned about the coup attempt while he was at the wedding of Airforce Commander General Mehmet Şanver’s daughter at Moda Marine Club, started a meeting at 23:00 with the participation of 17 generals present at the hall for the wedding. In the meeting, measures were taken against the coup attempt. Generals attending the meeting contacted their own superiors. When the airplanes taking off from the base in Diyarbakır did not obey the landing order and Adana Incirlik Base Commander, coup plotter Brigadier General Bekir Ercanvan did not respond to the phone call, Air Operations Center in Eskişehir was contacted. Full General Ünal instructed the Air Operation Center in Eskişehir to issue the order; “The Air Force Operations Center in Ankara is under the command of illegitimate persons, orders from there shall not be executed in any way, all orders shall be issued from Eskişehir Air Operations Center on behalf of me, unless I give the order, no plane shall fly” to all troops. Full General Abidin Ünal’s message was instantly issued to all units. Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Ziya Cemal Kadıoğlu and Lieutenant General Nihat Kökmen who were at the wedding hall went to Eskişehir to support Brigadier General Recep Ünal, who was responsible for the Eskişehir Air Operations Center. Likewise, Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Hasan Hüseyin Demiraslan and Major General İdris Aksoy were instructed to go to Eskişehir. Around 23:30, as the meeting of Full General Ünal and 17 other generals continued at Moda Marine Club, Ünal’s security guards who were in Ankara appeared at the meeting room door, armed and in full camouflage. As the first group held the meeting room door to block the exit, at 23:55 a new group of putschist soldiers came to Moda Marine Club. A group of fully armed coup plotters raided the meeting room by firing guns into the air. Putschist soldiers with plastic handcuffs captured Full General Ünal and the other generals. The first group took Full General Ünal to Akıncı Base by helicopter.