Valley of the Wolves and the History of Turkish Intelligence: The Kaşif Kozinoğlu File, Judicial Investigations, and a 20-Year Anatomy of Reality

Summary: Starting from the Kaşif Kozinoğlu investigation that the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office reopened in September 2026, I examine the relationship between Kurtlar Vadisi and real events: the series' intellectual sources, the events stretching from Susurluk to the Hiram Abas assassination and their counterparts in the series, character–real person matches, the related judicial processes, and the series' impact on society.

Legal Notice and Presumption of Innocence: This analysis is an open-source case study based on the questioning of the series' screenwriters as "persons with knowledge" within the scope of the judicial investigation conducted by the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on 14 September 2026, the statement records reflected in official press organs, and Turkey's close political/intelligence history over the last 30 years. Pursuant to Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, all persons enjoy the presumption of innocence until a final judicial decision is rendered. This article does not aim to determine the legal guilt of individuals; it aims to document, from a socio-political and historical perspective, the projections of popular culture narratives and intelligence-related fiction onto public perception.

Introduction: Shadows on the Screen and a Country's Unofficial Archive

When a series that began airing on Turkish televisions on the evening of 15 January 2003 came to the screens with the slogan "This is a mafia series" in its opening credits, Turkey was still trying to recover from the traumas of the political shock created by the 3 November 2002 general elections and the 2001 economic crisis. However, each episode that aired in the following months went far beyond an ordinary underworld conflict and began to touch the state's nerve endings, secret intelligence reports, unsolved murder files and international operations.

For a significant part of Turkish society in the early 2000s, Kurtlar Vadisi, which brought life to a halt on Thursday evenings, did not remain merely a fictional narrative that broke ratings records; it became a "perception laboratory" that etched the Susurluk process of the 1990s, the Ergenekon and Balyoz trials of the 2000s, the factional wars within intelligence agencies and ultimately the mental ground of the FETÖ plots into public memory.

As of September 2026, the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office reopening the file concerning the suspicious death of former MİT Chief Advisor Kaşif Kozinoğlu in 2011 and summoning the series' core script team (Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener, Cüneyt Aysan) to the courthouse to take their statements brought a critical question that had been debated for more than 20 years back onto Turkey's agenda:

Was Kurtlar Vadisi merely the dramatic success of brilliant screenwriters who read open sources very well; or was it a covert messaging mechanism used by cliques within the state, intelligence factions and the operational structures of the period to design public opinion?

To find the answer to this question, it is necessary to lay out in full detail both the judicial background of the September 2026 prosecutorial investigation and the anatomy of the historical events covered in the series since 2003.

1. The September 2026 Break: The Silivri Prosecutor's Office, the Kozinoğlu File and the Screenwriters' Statements

The Kaşif Kozinoğlu Case: A Death Full of Secrets in Silivri

Kaşif Kozinoğlu was a strategic intelligence officer of Turkish Armed Forces Special Warfare Department origin, who later served in the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) as Head of the Asia Countries Department and Chief Advisor, and who managed the most critical covert operations in Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Caucasus.

In 2011, while on duty in the Afghanistan field, he was summoned to Turkey within the scope of the "OdaTV / Ergenekon" plot wave carried out by FETÖ-linked prosecutors and police chiefs. On 10 March 2011, he was arrested and placed in Silivri Type L Prison. The most critical threshold during Kozinoğlu's detention was the handwritten notes he wrote in prison and the secret documents he stated he would disclose at his upcoming first hearing (22 November 2011). It was known that Kozinoğlu would present concrete evidence, particularly regarding FETÖ's school structures in Central Asia, its contacts with foreign intelligence services and the plots it carried out against Turkish intelligence.

However, only 10 days before his hearing, on 12 November 2011, Kaşif Kozinoğlu suddenly fell ill after exercising in his ward in Silivri Prison and lost his life. Although "heart attack" was written in the official death report, his late referral to hospital, the negligence in the prison ambulance and the later-raised claims of "air injection with a syringe / poisoning" made this death one of the darkest pages of Turkish intelligence history.

CHRONOLOGICAL CAUSATION ANALYSIS

The Kaşif Kozinoğlu Case and Series Timing

48-Hour Causal Link

Transfer to Silivri: MİT Chief Advisor Kaşif Kozinoğlu, summoned from the Afghanistan field, was arrested and placed in Silivri Type L Prison. (10 March 2011, Judicial Process (Silivri))
Threat in the Cell: In the series, the character Kazım Kaşifoğlu was locked in a dark cell and directly threatened with execution. (10 November 2011, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Episode 136))
12 November 2011: Critical Turning Point · +48 Hours Later

Suspicious Death

Kozinoğlu died suspiciously in prison after exercising, 10 days before his first hearing.

Execution by Syringe: In the series, the character Kaşifoğlu was killed in his prison cell by having air injected into his arm with a syringe. (08 December 2011, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Episode 139))

The File Reopened After 15 Years and the September 2026 Waves

The Kozinoğlu investigation, which was shelved in 2012 with a decision of "no grounds for prosecution," was reopened in 2026 by the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office with new evidence findings carried out under the coordination of the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Investigation of Unsolved Crimes.

The multi-stage judicial process carried out in early September 2026 unfolded as follows:

September 7, 2026: An operation was conducted at Silivri Prison against 11 suspects consisting of the execution protection officers on duty at the time, their administrative superiors and security personnel.
September 10, 2026: 9 suspects were taken into custody, including the prison medical personnel of the time, forensic medicine experts and some media members alleged to have participated in the negligence and conspiracy claims; arrests were made.
September 13-14, 2026: The Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office deepened the investigation and summoned the producers and screenwriters of the TV series Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener and Cüneyt Aysan, to the courthouse. The screenwriters gave statements lasting approximately 2.5 hours in the capacity of "persons with knowledge."

The Suspicion on the Prosecutor's Desk: The 48-Hour Causal Link and the Syringe Scene

At the center of the questions the prosecutor's office directed at the screenwriters was the following critical correlation:

In the 136th episode of the series, broadcast on November 10, 2011, the character "Kazım Kaşifoğlu" was locked in a cell and threatened with execution.
Exactly 48 hours after this broadcast (November 12, 2011), the real-life Kaşif Kozinoğlu died suspiciously in prison.
In the 139th episode, broadcast after the death, the character Kaşifoğlu in the series was killed in his cell by having air injected into his arm with a syringe.

The prosecutor's office questioned whether the script team knew this method of execution and the timing of the death in advance, and whether the script team was given operational information or prompts by intelligence and counterterrorism police chiefs of the time linked to FETÖ (particularly Ali Fuat Yılmazer's team).

The Screenwriters' Statements to the Prosecutor's Office and Osman Sınav's Statement

Screenwriter Raci Şaşmaz, in his statement at the prosecutor's office, categorically rejected the allegations directed at him and made the following defense:

Defense of Fictional Freedom and Open Sources: "The character Kazım Kaşifoğlu in the series is entirely fiction and was written to convey intelligence conflicts within the state in a dramatic style. It is physically and logically impossible for us to have known about any murder or death in advance. Kurtlar Vadisi is a production that captures the sociological photograph of society and blends news and books from open sources with dramatic power."
The İskender Büyük Example: To emphasize that the links drawn between deaths in the series and real people are coincidental, Şaşmaz gave the following example: "If, as alleged, those who died in the series had also died in reality, then retired Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who is alleged to be the inspiration for the character İskender Büyük executed in the series, would also have died at that time. Yet he was released from prison and lived for many years."
The Osman Sınav Admission: In his statement, Şaşmaz also put on the record a striking detail about the process by which the master director Osman Sınav, who directed the first 55 episodes of the series and has since passed away, left the project. Şaşmaz stated that Osman Sınav was disturbed by outside interventions and directions in the script, and that when they resisted these interventions, Sınav said "I am receiving threats, I have a family, I can't take it anymore" and left, transferring the project and his rights entirely to them.
Expert Panel Decision: The Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office appointed an independent expert panel to examine all episodes of the series, the suspicious vehicle scenes with the license plate "34 FG 7061" in episode 79, the image of an unclaimed gravestone bearing the name "Erdoğan" in episode 159, and the files of the "Kurtlar Vadisi Darbe" patent application made 2 months before the 2016 coup attempt.

2. The Intellectual Architects of Kurtlar Vadisi and the Intelligence Source Pool

To understand the source of the unique sense of reality and the deep-state language that Kurtlar Vadisi captured in 2003, one must examine the three key intellectual figures in the series' kitchen:

KURTLAR VADİSİ CONCEPT ARCHITECTURE AND INTELLIGENCE SOURCE POOL · Three Fundamental Pillars

Ömer Lütfi Mete: The intellectual source of the organization's philosophy, the Eurasianist geopolitical vision, deep gang analysis and the Doğu Eşrefoğlu aphorisms. (National State Mind & Philosophy)
Soner Yalçın: The transfer into fiction of Bay Pipo, Reis, Binbaşı Ersever'in İtirafları and the Susurluk/MİT reports; the backbone of the characters Aslan Akbey and Pala. (Intelligence Archive & Field)
Osman Sınav: The popular narrative power coming from the Deli Yürek school, the aesthetics of the tough guy, and a directing vision that lasted 55 episodes. (Dramatic Racon & Visual Language)

Ömer Lütfi Mete: The Philosophy of the National State and the "Deep Gang"

Journalist, writer and thinker Ömer Lütfi Mete was not only the series' script consultant; he was the intellectual patron and spiritual mentor of the brothers Necati Şaşmaz and Raci Şaşmaz. Mete was among the leading writers who analyzed Turkey's post-1980 intelligence-politics-mafia relations in the most naked form, with works such as Derin Çete, Asil Terör and Derin Devlet Koalisyonu.

The nationalist-statist aphorisms spoken by the characters "Doğu Eşrefoğlu" and "Aslan Akbey" in the series, the organizational hierarchy, and the doctrine of "if necessary for the survival of the state, personal life is reset to zero" were prepared directly inspired by Ömer Lütfi Mete's conception of the state.

Soner Yalçın: Intelligence Flowing from the Organization's Archive into the Script

Investigative journalist Soner Yalçın, who sat in the "Concept Consultancy" chair for the first 97 episodes of the series, was the author of the most high-profile research books on the history of Turkish intelligence:

Bay Pipo: The life of MİT Deputy Undersecretary Hiram Abas and the clique wars within the organization (the exact template for the character Aslan Akbey).
Reis: Abdullah Çatlı's journey from the Ülkücü movement to the ASALA operations and Susurluk (the main backbone for Polat Alemdar's past and the Ali Candan operation).
Binbaşı Ersever'in İtirafları: The unsolved operations in the Southeast of Ahmet Cem Ersever, one of the founders of JİTEM (the source of Pala's lines and actions).
Teşkilatın İki Silahşörü: The fedai tradition stretching from İttihat ve Terakki to Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa.

From the phonetics of the character names in the series to the drug-ship raids depicted, all scenes in the first seasons were a direct adaptation into fiction of the judicial documents, MİT reports and Parliamentary Investigation Commission minutes that Soner Yalçın had accumulated over the years.

3. Historical Events and Their Counterparts in the Series: A 20-Year Reality Breakdown

When the events brought to the screen throughout the series are examined chronologically, it is seen that the critical incidents that shook Turkey's recent history were woven directly into the script:

Year	Real Historical Event	Fictional Counterpart in the Series
1990	Assassination of Hiram Abas in crossfire in Kadıköy	Execution of Aslan Akbey by Pala disguised as a municipal worker
1992	Sinking of the drug ship Kısmetim-1 in the Mediterranean	Sinking of the ship Nasibim-1 in an operation
1993	Lucky-S drug ship operation	Raid on the ship Şanslı-S and the disposal of drugs
1993	Execution of JİTEM founder Ahmet Cem Ersever	Pala being killed and buried with concrete poured over his feet
1993	Gen. Eşref Bitlis martyred in a suspicious plane crash	Doğu Eşrefoğlu's helicopter being shot down with a missile
1995	Nesim Malki killed in an ambush in Bursa	Financial liquidation and killing of İplikçi Nedim
1996	Assassination of casino king Ömer Lütfü Topal	Tombalacı Mehmet and the executions in the casino district
1996	Özdemir Sabancı assassination on the 25th floor of Sabancı Center	Execution of Çağrı Toros at Toros Center by the terrorist Feraye
1996	Susurluk crash of the Mercedes with plate 06 AC 600	The series' starting point, Polat Alemdar's operation and the Council
2003	Turkish Special Forces hooded in Süleymaniye	The main opening motif of the film Kurtlar Vadisi Irak
2006	Danıştay Attack and the bombing of Cumhuriyet newspaper	Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu and İskender Büyük's provocations
2011	Suspicious death of Kaşif Kozinoğlu in Silivri Prison	Kazım Kaşifoğlu killed in prison by air injected with a syringe
2012	The February 7 crisis of the MİT Undersecretary being summoned to testify	Scenes of the Council of Elders and Polat Alemdar's prosecution siege
2016	"Kurtlar Vadisi Darbe" trademark registration application before July 15	The application made 2 months before the coup attempt and the terrorism investigation opened

The Susurluk Crash (1996) and the Architecture of the Wolves Council

On November 3, 1996, the Mercedes with plate 06 AC 600 that crashed under a truck in Susurluk, Balıkesir, brought together in the same wreckage a police chief (Hüseyin Kocadağ), a member of parliament (Sedat Edip Bucak) and an internationally wanted Ülkücü strongman with a false identity (Abdullah Çatlı, under the identity Mehmet Özbay), blowing up the "state-mafia-politics" triangle.

Kurtlar Vadisi was built directly on the legacy of this accident. In episode 1, the scene at Çakır's casino where a member of parliament, a police chief and underground figures clink whiskey glasses at the same table was a living prototype of Susurluk. The "Kurtlar Konseyi" (Council of Wolves) led by Mehmet Karahanlı, on the other hand, represented the oligarchic structure that controlled the flow of money, weapons, drugs, gambling, customs and media in Turkey from a single center.

Hiram Abas Assassination (1990) -> The Execution of Aslan Akbey

On September 26, 1990, former Deputy Undersecretary of MİT Hiram Abas was killed in Istanbul Kadıköy by terrorists disguised as municipal workers, who caught him in crossfire while he was in his vehicle on his way to work in the morning.

In episode 54 of Kurtlar Vadisi, KGT leader and Polat's mentor Aslan Akbey (Abbas Ustaoğlu) was caught in crossfire by Pala and his hitmen, who were wearing municipal worker overalls by the roadside, while he waited at a red light. Aslan Akbey's posture inside the car, the placement of the bullet holes and the executioners' wearing worker overalls were a visual copy of the Hiram Abas assassination records.

Kısmetim-1 and Lucky-S Ships (1992-1993) -> Nasibim-1 and Şanslı-S

In operations carried out by the General Directorate of Security and the Turkish Naval Forces in the international waters of the Mediterranean, the ship Kısmetim-1, carrying tons of base morphine and heroin, was sunk, and then the ship Lucky-S was seized.

In the series, the drug shipment in partnership between the Council's drug baron Hüsrev Ağa and the smuggler Şevko appeared exactly as "Nasibim-1" and "Şanslı-S". The reasons for sinking the ships, the informant processes and the state's method of intervention matched the real operation reports.

Cem Ersever and JİTEM Confessions -> The Pala Character

Major Ahmet Cem Ersever, one of the key figures of JİTEM, which was at the center of unsolved operations in the Southeast, announced after resigning from the army in 1993 that he would make confessions, and shortly afterwards his body was found in Ankara Elmadağ with his hands tied behind his back.

The character Pala, who always wore black sunglasses, wore a green military parka summer and winter, and was known for his motto "Only the dead see", was positioned as a field hitman blending Cem Ersever, Mahmut Yıldırım, code-named Yeşil, and Korkut Eken. The characters Bedir and Faruk, who accompanied Pala, were the fictional projection of the informants Mustafa Deniz and Neval Boz, who were executed on the same day as Cem Ersever.

Sabancı Center Assassination (1996) -> Çağrı Toros and Feraye

On January 9, 1996, on the 25th floor of Sabancı Center, holding board member Özdemir Sabancı and Toyotasa General Manager Haluk Görgün were killed by DHKP-C militants brought in by the cleaning worker Fehriye Erdal.

In Kurtlar Vadisi, businessman Çağrı Toros was killed in the "Toros Center" building with the help of the terrorist Feraye (a reference to Fehriye Erdal), who entered the holding building disguised as a cleaning worker. The series brought to the screen the international arms consortia and subcontractor terrorist networks behind the assassination.

The Murder of Casino King Ömer Lütfü Topal (1996)

The killing of casino king Ömer Lütfü Topal, the most important financial knot of the Susurluk process, who was gunned down with Kalashnikovs in Sarıyer on July 28, 1996, was the main motivation for the casino wars centered on Çakır and Tombalacı Mehmet in the series. In the series, the extortion mechanism of the casinos, fake inspections and the sharing of casino revenue by the council were conveyed faithfully to the real case records.

4. Major Character - Real-Life Matching Matrix

The real-life counterparts in Turkish politics, mafia and intelligence history of the main characters in the Kurtlar Vadisi and Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu universe are presented in the analytical table below:

Series Character	Real Person Represented	Historical Role and Case Context
Polat Alemdar	Abdullah Çatlı / Composite of Covert Operations	The missing identity at Susurluk; a covert figure carrying out operations on behalf of the state, changing identity through plastic surgery.
Süleyman Çakır	Alaattin Çakıcı	The famous underworld tough guy of the 1990s; casino licenses, check and promissory note operations, and executions of his rivals.
Laz Ziya	Dündar Kılıç	Former tough guy from Sürmene, Trabzon; the doyen of the underworld, Alaattin Çakıcı's former father-in-law.
Nesrin Çakır	Uğur Kılıç	Dündar Kılıç's daughter, Alaattin Çakıcı's wife; the mafia bride killed in Uludağ before her child's eyes.
Aslan Akbey	Mustafa Hiram Abas	Deputy Undersecretary of MİT; an intelligence officer active in street operations, executed in a crossfire in his car.
Doğu Eşrefoğlu	Mehmet Fuat Doğu / Maj. Gen. Eşref Bitlis	A composite of former MİT Undersecretary Fuat Doğu's intelligence experience and Maj. Gen. Eşref Bitlis's suspicious air crash.
İplikçi Nedim	Nesim Malki	Bursa-based Jewish moneylender and textile merchant; a money launderer who lent money to the market at high interest and was killed in 1995.
Tombalacı Mehmet	Ali Fevzi Bir	Defendant in the Susurluk scandal; Ömer Lütfü Topal's partner and a casino operator.
Hüsrev Ağa	Abuzer Uğurlu / Hüseyin Baybaşin	A traditional baron who ran the Diyarbakır/Lice and international heroin shipment routes.
Mehmet Karahanlı	Composite of Big Capital & Masonic Barons	The Turkey branch of TÜSİAD-axis oligarchic capital, Bilderberg and Gladio Templar structures.
Kılıç	Nihat Akgün / Çatlı's Protector	The armed enforcer of the underworld; the loyal shadow of the council baron and execution coordinator.
Testere Necmi	Yaşar Öz / Tarık Ümit	An underworld executioner with a green passport; a gang leader who carried out the lists of unsolved murders.
Tuncay Kantarcı	Tuncay Mataracı	Minister of Customs and Monopolies in 1978-79; a politician tried before the Supreme Tribunal on charges of bribery and smuggling.
Nizamettin Güvenç	Aydoğan Semizer	The legal architect of the underworld and bank looters, an offshore account coordinator.
Pala	Ahmet Cem Ersever / Yeşil / Korkut Eken	A field hitman of JİTEM and Special Warfare origin; black sunglasses, a green parka and unclaimed graves.
Bedir and Faruk	Mustafa Deniz and Neval Boz	Team members who were abducted along with Cem Ersever and killed by a bullet to the head with their hands tied.
Halo Dayı (Halil İbrahim)	Halil Havar	The famous international drug trafficker who was sprung by helicopter from Leeuwarden Prison in the Netherlands.
Şevko	İbrahim Telemen / Şevket Çetin	Arms and drug trafficker; a figure who clashed with police and was alleged to have committed suicide in a hotel room.
Cerrahpaşalı Halit	Nuri Ergin (Karagümrük Gang)	Prison riots, code killings and the practice of sending a message by beheading his rivals.
Kazım Kaşifoğlu	Kaşif Kozinoğlu	MİT Chief Advisor for Asia; an intelligence officer who died suspiciously in Silivri Prison, made to look like a heart attack.
İskender Büyük	Veli Küçük	Retired Brigadier General, founder of JİTEM; tried as one of the number one defendants in the Ergenekon case.
Mete Aymar	Mehmet Eymür	Former Head of MİT's Counter-Terrorism Department; a continuation of the Hiram Abas school within intelligence, an actor in the report wars.
Aron Feller	Graham Fuller	Former CIA Station Chief for Turkey and the Near East; the theorist of the Moderate Islam project and FETÖ's global protection.
Joseph Beile	Henri Barkey	CIA and Wilson Center analyst; the figure who organized the Büyükada Splendid Palas meeting on the night of the July 15 coup.
Kara	Mahmut Yıldırım (Yeşil)	A legendary deep hitman, unknown whether he is alive or dead, who worked on behalf of the state in the Southeast and Syria.
Davut Tataroğlu	Aydın Doğan	Media mogul; a boss who brought down governments with newspaper headlines and established monopolies in paper and energy tenders.
Vural Seçkin	Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu / Special Warfare	Senior generals of the Mobilization Inspection Board and the Gladio structure.

5. Judicial Reports, Wiretap Records and Investigations

Over the course of its more than 20-year run, the Kurtlar Vadisi team appeared not only on screen but also, time and again, in courthouse corridors and police reports:

The 2004-2005 Kelebek Operation and Mafia Wiretaps

In the report on the Kelebek Operation conducted by the Istanbul Police Department's Organized Crime Branch against the Sedat Peker group, it was documented that the series team was caught on phone taps. The wiretap records contained claims that members of the underworld tried to make contact with the series producers, lobbied over who was represented how in the script, and that some mafia figures attempted to interfere with the script. Within the scope of these wiretaps, Raci Şaşmaz and Bahadır Özdener were summoned to the police and had to give statements.

The Ergenekon Process and the Striking Timing

Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, which began in 2007, went on air simultaneously with the Ergenekon operations in Turkey. The series' storyline—in which the character "İskender Büyük" has the Cumhuriyet newspaper bombed, organizes the Council of State assassination, and involves unidentified-victim wells and coup diaries—aired weeks before or on the very days of the Istanbul Police Department's Counter-Terrorism Branch operation waves. This gave rise to claims that the series was fed cues by FETÖ-linked police chiefs (Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Mutlu Ekizoğlu, etc.) and frame-up prosecutors such as Zekeriya Öz in order to prepare public opinion and conduct psychological operations.

FRAME-UP ERA PUBLIC OPINION ENGINEERING CYCLE · Intelligence Leaks & Perception Management

Police & Judiciary Network: Operational files and leak drafts prepared by Zekeriya Öz and the frame-up branches. (01 / SOURCE, -> Operational Cue)
Series Script: The dramatization of frame-up claims on primetime television through İskender Büyük and deep-structure scenes. (02 / DRAMATIZATION, -> Millions of Viewers)
Mental Legitimacy: The psychological preparation of the public for the approaching waves of detentions and purges. (03 / SOCIAL IMPACT, -> Social Acceptance)
Judicial Waves: The execution of the Ergenekon, Balyoz and OdaTV arrests and the purges of personnel. (04 / RESULT, Operational Target)

May 2016: The "Kurtlar Vadisi Darbe" Trademark Registration Scandal

On 18 May 2016, Pana Film applied to the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office to register the phrase "Kurtlar Vadisi Darbe". Around the same dates, the domain name kurtlarvadisidarbe.com was also purchased.

Exactly 58 days after this application, on the night of 15 July 2016, Turkey faced a bloody attempted military coup. Following the coup attempt, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office Terror and Organized Crimes Bureau launched an official terrorism investigation into Pana Film officials on suspicion of "knowing about the coup attempt in advance and being in contact with FETÖ." Company executives and Necati Şaşmaz went to the prosecutor's office and gave statements. In their defense, they argued that the project consisted entirely of the intention to bring an imaginary coup scenario to the big screen.

The Code in Episode 79: "34 FG 7061" and the Gravestone

Two critical details that fell within the scope of the expert panel's examination, appointed by the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in September 2026, drew widespread public reaction:

Vehicle License Plate: In episode 79 of the series, the license plate of a suspicious vehicle stopped by the police is "34 FG 7061". The indictments alleged that the letters "FG" stood for Fethullah Gülen, while the numbers "7061," when read backwards, symbolized the date "16.07" (16 July), the morning the coup was suppressed.
The "Erdoğan" Gravestone: In episode 159, during a cemetery scene, the camera focuses distinctly on an unclaimed gravestone in the background bearing only the name "Erdoğan"; claims that this was a veiled assassination / purge threat against the political power and the President became one of the main research subjects of the expert report.

6. The Sociological and Security Dimension: From Mafia Romanticism to Deep-State Culture

Kurtlar Vadisi created not only a television success but a multi-layered security and sociology problem in Turkish society:

The Legitimization of Mafia Code and Street Gangs

After the character Süleyman Çakır was killed in the first 45 episodes of the series, absentee funeral prayers were held across Turkey, full-page death notices with black borders were placed in newspapers, and helva was distributed in the streets. This wave of hysteria led to the emergence in the 2000s of youth gangs in high schools, poor neighborhoods and back streets, carrying prayer beads, wearing black coats and bearing guns at their waists. Violence was made aesthetic under the mask of "love of country."

The "L'État, c'est moi" Syndrome and the Perception of Lawlessness

The series' core doctrine was the thesis that law and legal rules are insufficient in the fight against criminal organizations, and that the country can be saved only through outlaws "who shoot and take bullets in the name of the state." This discourse eroded the awareness of the institutional state and the constitutional rule of law in Turkey, and fostered a dangerous culture of impunity that legitimized individuals taking justice into their own hands, executions and gang formation in the eyes of society.

My reading

If Kurtlar Vadisi, 23 years after its beginning, continues to be the subject of prosecutorial interrogations, expert reports and investigations into unsolved murders today at the Silivri Courthouse, the main reason is that the series was never an ordinary television fiction.

The series became a massive "parallel historical narrative" that encoded on screen Turkey's Gladio, a leftover of the Cold War, the drug-politics-state networks exposed at Susurluk, the methods of unsolved murders and ultimately FETÖ's judicial-security setups.

In September 2026, the meticulous judicial investigation conducted by the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in the Kaşif Kozinoğlu file and the report to be prepared by the appointed expert panel will be a historic turning point that will legally certify whether popular media in Turkey has been used as an operational shield and perception tool in intelligence wars. The real-life costs of the shadows on screen await illumination in the scales of Turkish justice.