25-year-old former cadet takes his own life after struggling with coup- investigations

A 25-year-old former military cadet who was the subject of an investigation after a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey died by suicide on Monday morning, a Twitter account belonging to former cadets announced.

According to the Military Cadets Committee’s Twitter account, the post-coup investigations had taken their toll on the young man’s mental health. His identity was not disclosed at the request of his family.

“A military cadet took his own life today after years of struggling with baseless accusations and ridiculous investigations. Turkish authorities have destroyed the lives of young men and women,” said the committee.

It was revealed that the man’s older brother, also a former cadet, was serving a life sentence in prison on coup- charges.

Melek Çetinkaya, whose son, a former cadet, is also serving a life sentence, said the authorities had blood on their hands. “This boy was only a student in a military high school during the time of the coup. Today he died of suicide because of years of injustice,” she said on Twitter.

#15temmuz da IşıklarAskeriHava lisesinden mezun olan,Abisi de 1. sınıf HavaHarpOkulu öğrencisi idi. (darbeye teşebbüsten müebbet verildi 6yildir cezaevinde)25yaşında delikanlı bugun intihar etti.Yarin öğleden sonra defnedilecek.Bu veballerin altında kalacaksınız. @HulusiAkarMSB_

— Melek Çetinkaya (@MelekCetk) May 16, 2022

A total of 259 military cadets were detained on coup charges on July 16, 2016 and were arrested four days later. The cadets were indicted a year after they were put in pretrial detention, and their trial was concluded in May 2018.

One hundred seventy-eight of the cadets were sentenced to life in prison on charges of attempting to overturn the constitutional order and attempting to overthrow the Turkish government and parliament by use of force as well as membership in a terrorist organization.

The cadets say they didn’t know a coup attempt was underway and were acting on orders from their superiors, who told them there was a terrorist attack.