On the night of the bloody July 15 coup attempt last year, Akıncı Air Base was the headquarters of the traitors who tried to topple the elected government.
The base served as the heart of the traitors who arrested leading military figures and imprisoned them there. It was also the base where the traitors issued orders for the massacre of the people of Ankara with their F-16 fighters, their helicopter gunships, tanks and armored vehicles.
The F-16 fighters flew low over the streets of Ankara terrorizing the citizens, they bombed the Parliament, the presidential compound as well as the headquarters of the police and the Special Forces.
The coup plotters were all rounded up at the air base and they were all caught red handed. Their wireless conversations with the pilots to attack the Parliament and other targets, orders to shoot on the masses trying to foil the coup were all recorded and well documented.
These orders resulted in the killing of 77 people in Ankara out of the 250 massacred that night by the coup plotters. As many as 2,193 people were wounded.
The people of the Kazan township near Ankara tried to take over the air base in a brave assault that resulted in the deaths of several local people and scores were wounded. The Parliament named the township "Hero Kazan" after that bloody night.
The court case that started with 486 defendants is seen as one of the key trials in a long list of trials across the country against the coup attempt that was staged by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen who seems to have been given sanctuary by the United States and is holed up in his Pennsylvania mansion is the number one suspect in the trial and is being tried in absentia.
The start of the case was marked with protests and demands for the introduction of capital punishment as the families of those massacred by the coup plotters and the veterans of that night. Security forces had great difficulty in trying to keep the crowds away from the defendants. The anger and frustration was immense.
It showed the general mood of the Turkish public which is one of deep anger and resentment. The anger is understandable as the people have suffered for a whole year and have seen the coup plotters behave extremely arrogantly in other related trials. The courts have provided every opportunity for the coup plotters to make extended defense statements for the sake of justice. However, this has created the impression among the public that the cases are progressing too slowly.
What is comforting is that all those who were victims of the coup plot including the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) as well as Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar have all asked the court to be named as plaintiffs and thus take part in the cases.
Now we are on the final stretch of a marathon of justice and the end of the road is near for the coup plotters. This is where we have to show patience and let justice take its own course.