Commander of the Kartaltepe Barracks in Istanbul, Infantry Colonel Davut Ala did not give up his barracks to the putschist soldiers, despite being shot seven times during the conflicts that occurred on the night of the coup attempt.
Appointed to the Kartaltepe Barracks as Commander shortly after Eid al-Fitr, he found out about the coup from a noncommissioned officer while he was on his way to his public housing located in Zeytinburnu, during the evening of July 15th. Davut did not believe the news when he arrived home, he became anxious after seeing the footage in which tanks were roaming freely on the streets. Realizing that the tanks on the streets belonged to his barracks, he had a meeting with Staff Colonel Sait Ertürk, and decided he would from then on obey the orders of the non-putschist commanders.
Contacting the deputy governor to ask for clearance after the police blocked the entrance of his public housing, Davut set off shortly after a team of three policemen came from the Zeytinburnu Security Directorate.
Right side of his body was shattered
Armed after arriving at the barracks, Davut and his team went to the brigade headquarters. Seeing putschist commanders leaving the brigade headquarters, he and his friends battled putschist soldiers whom they encountered when they got back to the barracks. Colonel Sait and a policeman were wounded during the combat. Infantry Colonel Davut Ala who rushed to their sides to help, was wounded in his hand and stomach area. Despite being injured, he wanted to get close to the helicopter with the plan of shooting putschist soldiers but he was unfortunately wounded in seven different spots of his body. He lost a finger, half of his liver, his midriff was punctured and a part of his ribs were broken. The whole right side of his body was torn apart, he remained in intensive care for ten days.
VİDEO: ASKERİNE DÜŞMAN OLAN DÜŞMANININ ASKERİ OLUR
President Erdoğan personally called Davut
Receiving a call from President Erdoğan while getting treatment at the hospital, Veteran Davut described their conversation, “Our president called me around 02:00 in the morning. He wished me a speedy recovery. Our honorable president shall trust firstly in God, then the nation and us. He chatted with me about the country, about that night and what happened afterwards. His relatives and son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar and his father had already come to his side. May God be proud of him. Those assassins are everywhere now. May god protect our president and help him. Right now, everything and everyone is obscure. He shall take care of himself. Be under god’s protection. I worked at many places. We are the real Turkish soldiers. I sacrificed my finger, my liver, all of my body and even my life for our nation and country; but, there is one thing not to be forgotten, he who becomes an enemy of his soldier, becomes a soldier of his enemy. These are not the days to discredit soldiers, rather, these are the days to love soldiers and trust them even more. We tried to protect the honor of the uniforms which were entrusted to us by our nation. We are here for our nation.”
“Even Greek soldiers wouldn’t do this”
Delivering his testimony to the Commission of FETÖ’s Coup Investigation, Davut said, “When I was first delivered to the hospital, they threw me aside thinking I was dead. Because it was impossible for me to live. It is a miracle that I was alive. Now I am missing one finger. My midriff is perforated. Ribs broken. I have three bullets in my left knee and foot. None of this matters though. If we had put a Greek army in our place that night, even the Greek soldiers wouldn’t torture the civilians . What kind of a mentality is this? I called my relative to recite god’s name. I told him that my children were entrusted firstly to god, then them.”
