Aytac Yalman

Aytaç Yalman was a Turkish general who served as the Commander of the Turkish Army from 2002 to 2004 and the General Commander of the Gendarmerie of Turkey from 2000 to 2002. He was born in Istanbul in 1940 and graduated from the Turkish Military Academy in 1960. He was commissioned in an Artillery unit and later served in and commanded MGR-1 Honest John Ballistic Missile units. He also served in the Aegean Army and the Turkish military forces in Northern Cyprus in the early 1980s. He later commanded an Infantry Division and the Second Army. He was involved in the Turkey-Syria security relations after the 1998 Adana Agreement. He retired in 2004 due to the army's age limit. He was a witness in the Sledgehammer coup plot case, which was later revealed to be a conspiracy by the followers of Fethullah Gülen. He also wrote the libretto for "Şehitler Oratoryosu" (Oratorio for the Martyred) in 2008. He died from complications of COVID-19 on 15 March 2020, aged 79, after visiting Iran, where the disease was prevalent. He was buried in the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery in Istanbul. He was married to Belma Yalman and had two children.