Police officer Ozan Özen worked in the Pendik District Police Station. He was shot in the head by traitors, when he was on the road at the toll booths in Orhanlı. Özen, who was martyred on the spot, was carrying soldiers who said, “We are not putschists” in his police car.
Özen was born in Bolu in 1993. He dropped out of college in Manisa and entered the police exams. He completed his education in Kırıkkale Police Vocational School. Özen met his fiancée during his education in Manisa. He was preparing for marriage.
He was trying to protect soldiers who did not support the coup
Artillery Specialist Sergeant İbrahim Donat, who gave a statement for the coup investigation, described Ozan Özen’s martyrdom, “After we heard about the coup attempt, our Tank Commander non-commissioned Officer Ferhat Daş committed suicide by shooting himself under his jaw and saying, ‘We are not traitors!’ My other friends were inside the tank at that moment. We opened the tank’s hatch after non-commissioned Officer Ferhat Daş killed himself. Citizens took the commander to the ambulance. As we were going to the police station with a surrendered soldier like me, they started shooting at us. I don’t know who shot at us. Police officer Ozan Özen was martyred by being shot in the head during this attack”.
It had been one year since he started his new job
Putschist soldiers started shooting at Özen and the soldiers he was trying to take to a safer place in front of the Orhanlı toll booths. Özen was shot in the head by a single bullet and lost control of his car. He and the other soldiers were taken to the Marmara Education and Research Hospital but he had already been martyred on the scene.
The 23 year old, who was martyred 1 year after he started his new job in Istanbul, was buried in Bolu on Sunday, July 17th.
The name of martyr Ozan Özen was given to a middle school in Bolu.
