headquarters by the pro-coup soldiers, and transported by helicopter to the Akıncı AFB, where he was detained. As the coup attempt collapsed, he was freed the next morning by special forces. It is alleged that the Akıncı AFB was the command center of the pro-coup military. At 22:00 hours local time on July 15, 2016, Akın Öztürk, a four-star General in the Turkish Air Force and a member of the Supreme Military Council, who served as the 30th Commander of the Turkish Air Force between 2013 and 2015, reportedly started the coup d'état in Ankara by ordering of F-16 jet fighters of the 141st squadron to take off. The operation was led by Air Pilot Staff Lieutenant colonel Hakan Karakuş, who is the son-in-law of Akın Öztürk. The personnel of the 141st squadron had been sent home in the afternoon with the remark that their duty terminated earlier on that day. Six F-16 jet fighters involved in the coup were transferred from the 8th Air Wing at Diyarbakır Air Base the day before because of their improved precision night-attack capability at low flight and targeting pods. Two tanker aircraft of type KC-135R flown by the 101st Squadron at İncirlik AFB were employed for aerial refueling so the jet fighters could operate hours nonstop over Ankara. The jet fighters of Akıncı AFB were supported by Sikorsky S-70 and Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopters from the Ankara Güvercinlik Army Air Base. While they were flying low at subsonic speeds and directing air strikes towards governmental targets and civilians, anti-coup jet fighters from other air bases in Turkey took off and chased the pro-coup aircraft. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his constitutional capacity as the Commander-in-chief of the Turkish Armed Forces, ordered the shootdown of the pro-coup F-16s still in the air. Anti-coup F-16 jet fighters of the 9th Air Wing from the Bandırma Air Base chased the pro-coup F-16s in the air, and the F-4E/2020 Terminator jet bombers of the 1st Air Wing's 111th squadron from the Eskişehir Air Base bombed the runway thresholds of the air base to prevent the aircraft operating from Akıncı AFB from landing or taking off. The pro-coup aircraft were thus forced to land at other air bases. President Erdoğan credited the media and the people of Turkey in standing up against the coup plotters and said that the final straw that broke the back of the attempted