Going to the Bosporus Bridge by himself to resist the coup attempt of FETÖ’s soldiers on the night of July 15th, the body of 41-year-old Akın Sertçelik was found at the Forensic Medicine Institute in Yenibosna, where unattended bodies were brought. Akın was unidentifiable because he went to the bridge that night in his pajamas and forgot to take his wallet or any other form of identity with him.
Akın found out about the coup attempt on July 15th from his mother’s phone call. He turned on the TV and heard President Erdoğan’s call, “Go out to the streets!” He then asked his wife to bring a Turkish flag and hung the flag out on his window. Immediately after that, he took only his phone and heroically left for the Bosphorus Bridge, which he lived only 15 minutes away from.
“I will not go back until our president says so”
Sema Sertçelik, who stated that she spoke with her husband after the dawn prayer, for the last time, reported that Akın Sertçelik said, “I will not go back until our president says so.” Not being able to hear from her husband and spending her day looking for him with an identity card, she found her husband at the Forensic Medicine Institute in Yenibosna where unattended bodies were brought. After finding her husband she said, “I am content with my husband, may God be pleased with him.”
Akın was 41 years old and the father of two children. He had been working as a taxi driver since 2004. Originally he was a la carte chef, his favorite thing to do was to cook for his family.
The name Martyr Akın Sertçelik was given to an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Ataşehir, İstanbul.