Mehmet Ali Kılıç, who was 22 years old when he was martyred, was one of the youngest martyrs of the coup attempt. When he went into the streets, he told his mother he was going to go shopping. He went to the Bosphorus Bridge to try and stop the coup but was martyred by a sniper. He was holding a Turkish flag when he was killed. Nobody touched Kılıç’s hand holding the flag even as his body was being washed. Kılıç, a young patriot, entered the noncommissioned officer exams just to be a martyr.
Mehmet Ali Kılıç was the oldest child in his family. He was studying in the Machine Engineering department at Namık Kemal University. Kılıç, who was from Bitlis, told his mother Gülzirin Kılıç that he was going shopping on the night of July 15th. Then, he called his mother and said, “Things are bad in Istanbul. Our president called us into the streets, so I must go and can’t come home.”
“I’m responsible for their honor”
Gülzirin Kılıç, whose middle child was doing his military service at the time, was worried about her son Mehmet Ali being on the Bosphorus bridge. In their last phone call, she asked her son where he was and told him that she wanted to come there as well. Her son told her, “You pray for me. There are many old ladies wearing hijabs like you. I’m responsible for their honor. I can’t leave here.”
“Don’t let them take our country”
Mehmet Ali was the target of bullets fired by putschist soldiers who hid on the bridge, after the phone call with his mother. Before he died, the young martyr told his friend in the ambulance, “Don’t let them take our country. Protect it at all costs.” He reached martyrdom as he was reciting shahada and saying “God is the greatest”.
His mother described him as cheerful, selfless, religious, and non-discriminative. The martyr was buried in the Ayazağa graveyard after the funeral was held in the Harmantepe Mosque.
The martyr Kılıç had a 14 year old sister and a 21 year old brother. His father had been getting treatment for skin cancer for 7 months.
The name of Martyr Mehmet Ali Kılıç was given to an Imam Hatip high school in Sarıyer and an Anatolian Imam Hatip high school in Tatvan, Bitlis.
