On the night of July 15, Hicabi Bitik burnt the hay on his farm to stop F-16s from showering people with bullets, also he successfully stopped the putschist pilots from taking off from Akıncı Base, together with his nephews and children.
Bitik Village Headman Hicabi Bitik set off to Akıncı Base with his children and nephews after he heard the news about the coup attempt. They ran when the soldiers opened fire on the crowd, when they arrived in front of the entrance to the military base. Planes that took off from the base were flying so low that stork nests were falling from trees. Hicabi wanted to stop putschist soldiers but he didn’t know how to do it.
Four trailers full of hay and two trailers full of tires.
They called Kazan Mayor Lokman Ertürk. Ertürk’s suggestion was, “Cause panic at the Akıncı Base.” They decided to start a fire and fill the runway with smoke. Acting with his children, nephews and two municipality personnel, Hicabi risked his life by fetching hay bales from the field. When they started a fire with four trailers full of hay and two full of tires, Akıncı Base was covered with smoke. Making a statement days after the coup attempt, Hicabi talked about what he went through that night as follows;
“Planes were flying so low that stork nests on trees around here were falling down. Then they said, ‘Brother, there are some really bad things going on at the Akıncı Base, we should go.’ We called Mayor Lokman on our way. And he was with Mayor Melih and Governor of Ankara. Mayor Lokman said, ‘Do whatever you can to cause panic out there. Do anything you can to prevent planes from taking off from there.’ Then we fetched hay bales from the field and burned them. We burnt four trailers of hay. We were going to run trucks to the field as well, but we could not do anything when troops shot citizens. They literally murdered the civilians.”
Refused money: “We did it for the country”
Bitik, his children and nephews were among the ones who changed the course of the coup night. “If the president had ordered us to burn our cars, we would even do that,” said Bitik and refused the compensation for his hay which was going to be paid by the government saying, “We burnt them for the country.”
On the night of July 15, thousands of people from Kazan went to the Akıncı Base which was a center for the putschists. They risked their lives to stop F-16s that bombed Ankara. As a result of putschist troops opening fire at people, nine were martyred and more than 50 injured. After this battle, Kazan District was renamed as ‘Kahraman Kazan’.
“We did it for the country”
Bitik, his children and nephews changed the course of the night suddenly. They substantially prevented pilots with F-16s from taking off from the runway. “If the president had ordered us to burn our cars, we would have even done that,” said Bitik and refused the compensation for hay which was going to be paid by the government saying, “We burnt them for the country.”
On July 15, when the FETÖ soldiers attempted the coup, thousands of people from Kazan went to Akıncı Base, which was the center of the coup. They tried to stop the F-16s from bombing Ankara. Nine civilians were killed and more than 50 people were wounded.
