About Kemal Batmaz
Told by the sources

Kemal Batmaz was an unknown figure in Turkey until Wednesday. A criminal investigation and a series of security camerage footage surfaced that day and changed everything.

Now the most talked-about man in the country, this former executive of a paper company, has shocked people with the revelation that he was allegedly one of the men commanding the brutal coup attempt on July 15 blamed on the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Prosecutors think he might be a figure with a higher rank than Adil Öksüz, the prime suspect accused of masterminding the coup plot.

Batmaz confidently walked in the halls of a military base in casual clothes while high-ranking officers wearing military fatigues pass by him and give him a military salute, security camera footage shows.

Prosecutors believe he might be the real commander of decorated officers loyal to the terror cult who moved to seize power from the elected government at the cost of 246 lives.

Batmaz, who is currently in prison after his capture at Akıncı Air Base in the capital Ankara hours after the putsch was quelled, was not the only man in civilian clothes at the base where fighter jets scrambled to strike strategic locations including the Presidential Palace.

Indeed, he was with Öksüz, the second most wanted man in Turkey after FETÖ's leader Fetullah Gülen, for masterminding the coup. Harun Biniş, a ponytailed man seen shuffling through rooms at the command floor of the base in the company of pro-coup officers at one point in the security camera footage where Batmaz was seen, was also at the base.

Ties between the three men who were not photographed together inside the base were discovered by prosecutors in Ankara. Only Öksüz, from the trio, remains at large, but prosecutors believe Öksüz, a theology lecturer by profession who is accused of drafting the plot for the junta's takeover, may be a subordinate of Batmaz. (1)

Kemal Batmaz, a fellow FETÖ member, remains in detention after his capture at the same base and is believed to be a superior of Öksüz in the cult's structure. (1)

(1) www.dailysabah.com/investigations/2016/11/03/businessman-commanding-coup-troops-highlight-of-fetos-coup-attempt

(2) www.dailysabah.com/investigations/2016/12/01/nephew-of-top-feto-figure-captured-in-southern-turkey-before-fleeing