Former Lieutenant Adem Gürbüz committed suicide by hanging himself in the pulpit of the Istanbul Dudullu Central Mosque. It was disclosed that Lieutenant Gürbüz stayed in the mosque for 8 hours before committing suicide. In terms of present-day Turkey, symbolic aspects of suicide in the mosque were discussed in social media.
Halis Tunç, Former Turkish Naval Attaché in Greece, who was expelled with a Decree-Law while serving with the rank of Staff Colonel, wrote the chain of events that led a young officer to commit suicide.
The ex-soldier who committed suicide in a mosque / Halis Tunç
Starting his duty as an officer on contract on August 30, 2015, with the rank of Lieutenant, Adem Gürbüz was arrested a year later after the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. He was in jail for five months. When operations against Syria started on August 24, 2016, many officers / non-commissioned officers were released pending trial at different times by the state to send them to the operations in Syria. Despite continuing their trials as a `terrorist,` they were sent for the action in Syria by removing their travel bans abroad.
This stands in stark conflict with what they were allegedly claimed. When they are tried as `terrorists,` they were given weapons, they used fighter jets, helicopters or tanks.
If Adem Gürbüz had died during the operation in Syria, he would have been recorded as a `martyr.` But Gurbuz, while the court allegedly claimed that he was a `terrorist,` came back to Turkey alive after an extended stay in Syria. Then he was dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces.
The reason behind this is that the computer algorithm called “FETÖMETRE” used to identify Gulenists also marks Gürbüz as a Gülenist. FETÖMETRE is an algorithm developed by the deputy chief of the Naval Forces Adm. Cihat Yaycı. FETÖ-METRE is derived from the derogatory term “FETÖ,” which is used widely in the Turkish media to describe the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization.
Purged officers from the Turkish Armed Forces describe FETÖMETRE as a Post-Modern genocide tool.
Adem Gürbüz returned to his family in Erzurum after being expelled from the Turkish Armed Forces. However, he was now stigmatized as a Gulenist, and great social pressure began. He applied for jobs in different places while he was unemployed, but he could not get any job in Erzurum as he was called a `Gulenist.` He responded to the social pressure of his family and relatives as “If it were not obscene, I would show you the traces of torture on my body.” During his five months in prison, Lieutenant Gürbüz was also tortured like many other soldiers.
Gürbüz went to Istanbul and started working in the construction sites for daily earnings. On January 22, 2020, after the night (isha) prayer in Istanbul Dudullu Mosque, he hid in the mosque. After everyone left the mosque, he committed suicide by hanging himself to the pulpit with the cable of the broom machine. Gürbüz sent to his brother before he committed suicide a text message which read “Can you send me 150 TL ($25)? Thank you even if you don’t send it!” His last message with such content shows the dire financial state he faced and the crisis caused by being left to civilian death.
Although the cameras in the mosque have recorded how Lt. Adam Gurbuz gave his last breath, a former soldier’s drama was not highlighted even in a single media organ in Turkey.
