How an unwitting cadet became a victim of Turkiye’s anti-coup crackdown
Officer cadet Alper Kalin has spent a decade in prison after being caught in the middle of Turkey's 2016 failed coup attempt. Despite being an unwitting participant during a military exercise, he was convicted for his alleged role in the uprising.
Why it matters
The case illustrates the human cost and legal fallout of Turkey's extensive anti-coup crackdown, which affected many individuals who were not primary conspirators.
On July 15, 2016, officer cadet Alper Kalin was about to leave his base in Ankara for a friend’s wedding when he was told to stay behind for an anti-terrorism exercise.
A few hours later, the efforts of a rogue military faction to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would fail, and Mr. Kalin would find himself facing life behind bars.
Ten years on, inside a flat in Ankara, his parents look through an album of photos of their last holiday together with their son, who is now 34.
For Mr. Kalin, a trainee air force pilot who had been selected for F-16 training at Akinci base near Ankara, the past decade has been spent in a prison 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away.
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