Fifteen years after an intelligence officer died in his prison cell, Turkish prosecutors are examining a cult television series for possible hidden messages — as an extraordinary investigation continues to widen.
A dead intelligence officer, an exhumed grave, a fictional agent killed with a syringe and a car licence plate bearing the letters “FG.” One of Turkey’s most closely watched criminal investigations this autumn has acquired elements that could have come from the television series now at the centre of the inquiry.
That series is Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), the hugely popular Turkish action drama built around the worlds of intelligence, organised crime and the state. Famous for incorporating recognisable elements of real Turkish political events into its fictional universe, its later incarnation, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Valley of the Wolves: Ambush), has now become part of a formal investigation.
He was arrested in 2011 after returning from Afghanistan as part of the investigations surrounding the Ergenekon and Odatv cases — sweeping prosecutions that targeted military officers, journalists and others accused of involvement in alleged plots against the Turkish government.
The investigations unfolded during a period when police officers, prosecutors and judges subsequently identified by the Turkish authorities as members or associates of the movement led by Fethullah Gülen exercised significant influence within parts of the country’s security and judicial apparatus. Following the failed coup attempt of July 2016, Ankara designated the Gülen movement a terrorist organisation under the name “FETÖ.” Numerous Ergenekon-era prosecutions were subsequently overturned or came to be officially characterised in Turkey as having relied on fabricated evidence or conspiratorial prosecutions.
On 12 November 2011, Kozinoğlu died in Silivri prison after exercising, just 13 days before he was due to appear in court. His death was attributed to a heart attack.
His family questioned whether the death was natural, pointing in part to his physical condition and sporting background. The investigation opened at the time was closed the following year.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the ministry’s unit dealing with unresolved cases had re-examined the file. The investigation was placed under a confidentiality order and a special team was established.
Kozinoğlu’s remains were subsequently exhumed and samples taken for forensic examination, including an effort to establish whether substances or medication may have played a role in his death.
The investigation encompasses allegations including intentional homicide, establishing or belonging to a criminal organisation, and violations of Turkey’s legislation governing the intelligence services. The existence of an investigation does not establish the criminal responsibility of those questioned or accused.
One allegation has attracted particular attention in Turkey: that when Kozinoğlu became ill and called for assistance, prison guard Ferhat Veysi Gül allegedly increased the volume of a radio, preventing his cries from being heard.
Gül was subsequently identified by Turkish authorities as a member of the Gülen movement and left Turkey following the 2016 coup attempt.
An intelligence officer named “Kazım Kaşifoğlu” entered the series in episode 123. The character was portrayed as a traitor and was eventually killed. The similarities in the names and backgrounds prompted viewers to associate the fictional Kaşifoğlu with the real-life Kozinoğlu.
It is the chronology, however, that has transformed those similarities into a subject for investigators.
In episode 136, broadcast on 10 November 2011, Kaşifoğlu is imprisoned, beaten and threatened by another character with the words: “Kaşifoğlu, I will kill you.”
Two days later, on 12 November, Kozinoğlu died in Silivri prison.
But the fictional character’s actual death came later.
In episode 139, broadcast on 8 December 2011 — 26 days after Kozinoğlu’s real death — Kaşifoğlu complains that his pulse is racing following exercise. After taking a shower, he is killed by the character known as “Kara,” who injects air into his arm with a syringe, making the death appear to have resulted from a heart attack.
Prosecutors have appointed experts to examine several elements of the programme, including the decision to portray Kaşifoğlu as a traitor, appearances of vehicles with licence plates containing the letters “FG” — interpreted by some as a reference to Fethullah Gülen — and allegations that certain episodes contained pro-Gülen propaganda, coded messages or instructions.
Whether those elements amounted to deliberate signalling, ordinary fictional storytelling or coincidence remains a question for the investigation. No publicly established evidence has yet demonstrated that the programme transmitted an order to kill Kozinoğlu.
A dead intelligence officer, an exhumed grave, a fictional agent killed with a syringe and a car licence plate bearing the letters “FG.” One of Turkey’s most closely watched criminal investigations this autumn has acquired elements that could have come from the television series now at the centre of the inquiry.
That series is Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), the hugely popular Turkish action drama built around the worlds of intelligence, organised crime and the state. Famous for incorporating recognisable elements of real Turkish political events into its fictional universe, its later incarnation, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Valley of the Wolves: Ambush), has now become part of a formal investigation.
Who Was Kaşif Kozinoğlu?
Kaşif Kozinoğlu was a former special forces officer and an operative of MİT, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation. His career included lengthy assignments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan.He was arrested in 2011 after returning from Afghanistan as part of the investigations surrounding the Ergenekon and Odatv cases — sweeping prosecutions that targeted military officers, journalists and others accused of involvement in alleged plots against the Turkish government.
The investigations unfolded during a period when police officers, prosecutors and judges subsequently identified by the Turkish authorities as members or associates of the movement led by Fethullah Gülen exercised significant influence within parts of the country’s security and judicial apparatus. Following the failed coup attempt of July 2016, Ankara designated the Gülen movement a terrorist organisation under the name “FETÖ.” Numerous Ergenekon-era prosecutions were subsequently overturned or came to be officially characterised in Turkey as having relied on fabricated evidence or conspiratorial prosecutions.
On 12 November 2011, Kozinoğlu died in Silivri prison after exercising, just 13 days before he was due to appear in court. His death was attributed to a heart attack.
His family questioned whether the death was natural, pointing in part to his physical condition and sporting background. The investigation opened at the time was closed the following year.
A Grave Opened, A Case Reopened
In 2026, the case returned to the centre of Turkish public attention.Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the ministry’s unit dealing with unresolved cases had re-examined the file. The investigation was placed under a confidentiality order and a special team was established.
Kozinoğlu’s remains were subsequently exhumed and samples taken for forensic examination, including an effort to establish whether substances or medication may have played a role in his death.
The investigation encompasses allegations including intentional homicide, establishing or belonging to a criminal organisation, and violations of Turkey’s legislation governing the intelligence services. The existence of an investigation does not establish the criminal responsibility of those questioned or accused.
One allegation has attracted particular attention in Turkey: that when Kozinoğlu became ill and called for assistance, prison guard Ferhat Veysi Gül allegedly increased the volume of a radio, preventing his cries from being heard.
Gül was subsequently identified by Turkish authorities as a member of the Gülen movement and left Turkey following the 2016 coup attempt.
Two Days Before, Twenty-Six Days After
The investigation then took an unusual turn: prosecutors began examining episodes of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu.An intelligence officer named “Kazım Kaşifoğlu” entered the series in episode 123. The character was portrayed as a traitor and was eventually killed. The similarities in the names and backgrounds prompted viewers to associate the fictional Kaşifoğlu with the real-life Kozinoğlu.
It is the chronology, however, that has transformed those similarities into a subject for investigators.
In episode 136, broadcast on 10 November 2011, Kaşifoğlu is imprisoned, beaten and threatened by another character with the words: “Kaşifoğlu, I will kill you.”
Two days later, on 12 November, Kozinoğlu died in Silivri prison.
But the fictional character’s actual death came later.
In episode 139, broadcast on 8 December 2011 — 26 days after Kozinoğlu’s real death — Kaşifoğlu complains that his pulse is racing following exercise. After taking a shower, he is killed by the character known as “Kara,” who injects air into his arm with a syringe, making the death appear to have resulted from a heart attack.
Prosecutors have appointed experts to examine several elements of the programme, including the decision to portray Kaşifoğlu as a traitor, appearances of vehicles with licence plates containing the letters “FG” — interpreted by some as a reference to Fethullah Gülen — and allegations that certain episodes contained pro-Gülen propaganda, coded messages or instructions.
Whether those elements amounted to deliberate signalling, ordinary fictional storytelling or coincidence remains a question for the investigation. No publicly established evidence has yet demonstrated that the programme transmitted an order to kill Kozinoğlu.
The New Arrests
Scriptwriters Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener and Cüneyt Aysan have been questioned as witnesses.
They denied that any individual or organisation dictated elements of the storyline, maintaining that the plot developed according to the writers’ own creative decisions and that similarities with subsequent events were coincidental.
Şaşmaz told prosecutors that the Kaşifoğlu character had been conceived as part of a storyline depicting struggles for power within the intelligence world. He argued that establishing what happened to Kozinoğlu was a matter for prosecutors and that a scriptwriter could not have known in advance that someone would die.
He also rejected allegations that Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former senior police intelligence official later convicted over Gülen movement links, had influenced the series’ scripts. Şaşmaz said he had never met Yılmazer.
Sedat Savtak, the actor who portrayed Kaşifoğlu, was questioned for around two hours at the Silivri courthouse. Savtak had previously told CNN Türk that he had not known he was effectively portraying Kozinoğlu, had received no information from the intelligence services and discovered that his character would be killed only when he read the relevant script.
Emin Olcay, who portrayed the series’ well-known “Ömer Baba” character, has also given a statement.
The investigation has continued to widen.
On Wednesday evening, Bayram Özbek, described by Turkish authorities as a convicted member of the Gülen movement and identified in the investigation as having been involved in writing for the series, was arrested on allegations including leadership of an armed terrorist organisation and incitement to murder.
Earlier, investigators arrested Ali İşgören, who was Silivri’s chief prosecutor at the time of Kozinoğlu’s death, and Necip Doğan, the prosecutor responsible for the prison, as well as former journalist Osman Arslan.
Among the most prominent figures drawn into the investigation is Enver Altaylı, a former MİT officer already serving a prison sentence following his conviction in a case involving the Gülen movement. He has now been arrested in connection with an allegation of incitement to murder.
Altaylı, who worked for MİT between 1968 and 1973 and later edited Hergün, a newspaper associated with Turkey’s nationalist MHP, denies the new allegation.
He told the court that a text that did not even contain the word “execution” was being interpreted as evidence that he ordered, planned or otherwise marked Kozinoğlu for death. He also challenged the reliability of digital files containing alleged correspondence, claiming that they showed indications of manipulation and problems with the chain of custody.
Those claims remain Altaylı’s defence and have not been independently established.
On Wednesday, Doğu Perinçek, leader of the nationalist Vatan (Homeland) Party and himself a defendant in the former Ergenekon proceedings, also gave evidence as a witness. Nothing publicly disclosed so far indicates that Perinçek has been accused of an offence in connection with Kozinoğlu’s death.
One analysis of the timeline notes that the Kaşifoğlu character first appeared on 28 April 2011 — around seven weeks after Kozinoğlu’s arrest on 10 March. Information concerning the real intelligence officer and his interrogation had already appeared in the Turkish press.
The fictional character therefore emerged after Kozinoğlu had become a matter of public interest.
More significantly, the television scene in which Kaşifoğlu actually dies was broadcast on 8 December — 26 days after Kozinoğlu’s death in Silivri. That sequence could not, on its own, have foretold an event that had already happened.
What continues to attract investigators’ attention is the scene broadcast two days before the real death, in which the fictional intelligence officer is explicitly threatened with death, combined with the subsequent similarities between the television storyline and questions now being raised about Kozinoğlu’s final hours.
Coincidence, retrospective dramatisation, coded signalling or something more serious?
For now, the evidence made public does not resolve that question.
The forensic examination of Kozinoğlu’s exhumed remains and the experts’ analysis of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu may eventually provide more concrete answers. Until then, one of Turkey’s strangest investigations remains suspended somewhere between television fiction, the unresolved history of the Ergenekon era and a real death inside Silivri prison.
For a series built on the proposition that the hidden world of the Turkish state was stranger than anything television could invent, it is an extraordinary reversal: Valley of the Wolves is no longer merely dramatising the investigation.
It has become part of it.
They denied that any individual or organisation dictated elements of the storyline, maintaining that the plot developed according to the writers’ own creative decisions and that similarities with subsequent events were coincidental.
Şaşmaz told prosecutors that the Kaşifoğlu character had been conceived as part of a storyline depicting struggles for power within the intelligence world. He argued that establishing what happened to Kozinoğlu was a matter for prosecutors and that a scriptwriter could not have known in advance that someone would die.
He also rejected allegations that Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former senior police intelligence official later convicted over Gülen movement links, had influenced the series’ scripts. Şaşmaz said he had never met Yılmazer.
Sedat Savtak, the actor who portrayed Kaşifoğlu, was questioned for around two hours at the Silivri courthouse. Savtak had previously told CNN Türk that he had not known he was effectively portraying Kozinoğlu, had received no information from the intelligence services and discovered that his character would be killed only when he read the relevant script.
Emin Olcay, who portrayed the series’ well-known “Ömer Baba” character, has also given a statement.
The investigation has continued to widen.
On Wednesday evening, Bayram Özbek, described by Turkish authorities as a convicted member of the Gülen movement and identified in the investigation as having been involved in writing for the series, was arrested on allegations including leadership of an armed terrorist organisation and incitement to murder.
Earlier, investigators arrested Ali İşgören, who was Silivri’s chief prosecutor at the time of Kozinoğlu’s death, and Necip Doğan, the prosecutor responsible for the prison, as well as former journalist Osman Arslan.
Among the most prominent figures drawn into the investigation is Enver Altaylı, a former MİT officer already serving a prison sentence following his conviction in a case involving the Gülen movement. He has now been arrested in connection with an allegation of incitement to murder.
Altaylı, who worked for MİT between 1968 and 1973 and later edited Hergün, a newspaper associated with Turkey’s nationalist MHP, denies the new allegation.
He told the court that a text that did not even contain the word “execution” was being interpreted as evidence that he ordered, planned or otherwise marked Kozinoğlu for death. He also challenged the reliability of digital files containing alleged correspondence, claiming that they showed indications of manipulation and problems with the chain of custody.
Those claims remain Altaylı’s defence and have not been independently established.
On Wednesday, Doğu Perinçek, leader of the nationalist Vatan (Homeland) Party and himself a defendant in the former Ergenekon proceedings, also gave evidence as a witness. Nothing publicly disclosed so far indicates that Perinçek has been accused of an offence in connection with Kozinoğlu’s death.
Prophecy Or Coincidence?
There is an important chronological problem with the idea that Valley of the Wolves simply “predicted” Kozinoğlu’s death.One analysis of the timeline notes that the Kaşifoğlu character first appeared on 28 April 2011 — around seven weeks after Kozinoğlu’s arrest on 10 March. Information concerning the real intelligence officer and his interrogation had already appeared in the Turkish press.
The fictional character therefore emerged after Kozinoğlu had become a matter of public interest.
More significantly, the television scene in which Kaşifoğlu actually dies was broadcast on 8 December — 26 days after Kozinoğlu’s death in Silivri. That sequence could not, on its own, have foretold an event that had already happened.
What continues to attract investigators’ attention is the scene broadcast two days before the real death, in which the fictional intelligence officer is explicitly threatened with death, combined with the subsequent similarities between the television storyline and questions now being raised about Kozinoğlu’s final hours.
Coincidence, retrospective dramatisation, coded signalling or something more serious?
For now, the evidence made public does not resolve that question.
The forensic examination of Kozinoğlu’s exhumed remains and the experts’ analysis of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu may eventually provide more concrete answers. Until then, one of Turkey’s strangest investigations remains suspended somewhere between television fiction, the unresolved history of the Ergenekon era and a real death inside Silivri prison.
For a series built on the proposition that the hidden world of the Turkish state was stranger than anything television could invent, it is an extraordinary reversal: Valley of the Wolves is no longer merely dramatising the investigation.
It has become part of it.
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