Learn the story of the 8 Aselsan Defense Engineers who died in mysterious accidents

For some, traffic accidents, electric currents, stabbings, suicides These were just successive deaths due to chance or fate, while others see in them systematic assassinations that were intended to curb the Turkish defense industry's projects and independence.

In the wake of the traffic accident that killed Serdar Demir, head of marketing and communications at the Turkish Aerospace and Aerospace Industry Company "TUSAŞ", on Sunday, a lot of controversy arose on social media platforms in Turkey, with many describing it as "suspicious".

Demir was killed after a traffic accident in the Turkish capital, as he was driving his car back to Ankara after participating in the "SAHA EXPO" exhibition for defense and aerospace industries that was held in Istanbul, as a result of losing control of the steering wheel after his car collided with a truck on the road.

In fact, Demir's death in this way opened the door to suspicion in Turkey, especially since a large number of Turkish scientists and engineers died or were killed in similar incidents, which were ignored at the time as if they were accidents or cases of suicide.

Here are the stories of 8 Turkish engineers who were working on sensitive projects at Aselsan, who have lost their lives since 2006.

Background

In the wake of the Cyprus peace process implemented by the Turkish Armed Forces by order of the then Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in 1974, and the subsequent US and Western sanctions banning arms sales to Turkey, the Turkish government encouraged the nationalization of defense industries in Turkey, and among these projects was the establishment of a Turkish company It develops and manufactures military electronics and encrypted communication systems, called "ASELSAN", and today it is one of the largest defense industry companies in Turkey.

Since its establishment in 1975, ASELSAN has developed many security systems and technologies needed by the Turkish Armed Forces in military platforms such as drones, tanks, missiles, command and control systems for warplanes, etc., and to accomplish all this, it has employed the best Turkish minds to work on these promising national projects.

In order to achieve independence in the encrypted communications systems in the American “F-16” plane, which was subject to American control in one way or another, in 2006, “ASELSAN” company appointed a team of engineers to work on modifying the communication systems of the plane and enhancing its secrecy between the plane and the headquarters in the air bases. However, the project did not end at that time because 8 engineers were killed in a row in suspicious and mysterious ways.

Suspicious death accidents

1- A few months after the founding of the team, the news on the morning of August 5, 2006 shocked the Turkish community and the project, that the engineer in charge of the Aselsan National Tank Project, Hüseyin Bashbilan, was found dead in his locked car from the inside. He cut his throat and wrist 50 kilometers from his home in Ankara, to make it look like a suicide, despite the refusal of his family and colleagues to believe that he committed suicide, especially since the files of the project he was working on had been stolen and no trace left.

2- In another car, and on January 17, 2007, the electronics engineer, who started working at Aselsan 3 years before his graduation from the Middle East Technical University, Molesem Unal, was found dead inside his car due to a bullet fired to his head. He's the one who fired it.

3- Only 9 days had passed since Unal’s death, when Turkey was shaken by the news of the death of another engineer, Evrim Yançkin, who at the time allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of his building in the Batikent district of the capital, Ankara, on January 26, 2007. It was alleged that Yançkin He was suffering from psychological problems.

4- On October 7, 2007, engineer Burhanuddin Volkan was found dead at the Pando Military School in the capital, Ankara, and reports revealed at the time that he had committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle. Amid the suspicions of the Volkan family, his father claimed in the investigation that his son had tried to break away from the Koln terrorist organization, and that his death was a murder, not a suicide.

5- On May 10, 2008, while performing his military service in Istanbul, the electrical and electronics engineer who was working on one of the “Asilisan” projects, Zafer Uluk, died after being electrocuted while trying to repair the power transformer in the camp. While his death was recorded as an accident, his family refused to accept this claim.

6- On the road between Ankara and Eskisehir, engineer Hakan Oksuz, who was working on microelectronics projects and the photoelectric steering group project, died in a traffic accident on January 25, 2012.

7- As for the engineer Erdem Agurd, an expert in the magnetic field, who was working on many important projects such as drones and the “F-16” project, he was found dead with a gas tube in his mouth, at his home in Ankara on January 16, 2015. The incident was recorded as a suicide.

8- The recent death of Aselsan engineers was what happened in the capital, Ankara, on November 21, 2017, after Turkey woke up to the news of the suicide of Karim Balidar, an expert on local defense systems, who was found on the ground after he mysteriously fell from the floor. Fourteenth of the building in which he lives.

Many question marks

The families, friends and colleagues of the victims refused to accept the hypothesis of accidental deaths or suicides, and they saw from the start that the death of engineers in a row was the result of systematic and deliberate plans to rein in the national projects of Aselsan and other Turkish defense companies.

In the wake of the failed coup attempt organized by the Gulen terrorist organization in mid-2016, the files of the death of the eight “Aselsan” engineers and others were reopened, and the former public prosecutor, Murat Demir, who was arrested on charges of belonging to the Gulen terrorist organization, was investigated. At that time, he claimed in his testimony that the Gulen terrorist organization prevented the investigation of these incidents.

During the 15 years since the death of the first engineer, and especially after the failed coup attempt, many people within the “Aselsan” structure were punished for their affiliation with the Gulen terrorist organization, and many links were revealed. However, many question marks still hover over the cause of the death of these engineers, and the extent of communication between the Gulen terrorist organization and foreign intelligence networks.