Why are the Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu screenwriters testifying in the Kozinoğlu investigation?

14 September 2026 — Kurtlar Vadisi, Turkish television's longest-running action franchise, is in the news not because of a trailer but because of a prosecutor's summons. As TRT Haber reported on the evening of 13 September, the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has called the three screenwriters of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener and Cüneyt Aysan, to give statements in the reopened investigation into the death of former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officer Kaşif Kozinoğlu. All three are being heard as "persons with knowledge", which means they are not listed as suspects. According to prosecution sources quoted by Hürriyet, the statements were scheduled for 14 September, and their purpose is to decide the next steps of the inquiry.

Who was Kaşif Kozinoğlu?

According to his Turkish Wikipedia biography, he was born in Trabzon in 1955, joined MİT after retiring from the military in 1995, and served in Syria, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan. In September 2010 he was appointed chief adviser for the Asia region; inside the agency he was nicknamed "Hayalet" (the Ghost). On 10 March 2011 an arrest warrant was issued for him as part of the Ergenekon investigation; he was flown from Afghanistan to Turkey and placed in Silivri Prison. According to the official record cited by TRT Haber, he fell ill on 12 November 2011 in Silivri No. 1 L-Type Closed Prison, was transferred to Silivri State Hospital and was dead on arrival (Wikipedia gives the date as 13 November). The official cause of death was recorded as a heart attack; his son said his father had no known heart condition and called the death suspicious. The first investigation, opened in 2012, ended with a decision not to prosecute.

How was the case reopened?

The Justice Ministry's Department for the Investigation of Unsolved Crimes re-examined the file, and on 26 August 2026 the Silivri Criminal Judgeship of Peace lifted the non-prosecution decision, restarting the investigation. According to Hürriyet, the file is under a confidentiality order and is handled by a dedicated team. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek summarised the process on his NSosyal account: proceedings were opened against 11 prison staff on duty at the time, 10 were detained, and one was found to be a FETÖ fugitive abroad. In the first round one person was arrested and seven were released under judicial control. Nine more people were then detained: a reporter, a cameraman and seven health workers. According to the minister's latest figures, four people are under arrest and thirteen are under judicial control.

Why is a TV series in the file?

According to details reported by Türkiye Gazetesi, prosecutors are examining similarities between Kozinoğlu's final days in prison and the Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu episodes broadcast at the time. In episode 136, aired on 10 November 2011, a character named "Kazım Kaşifoğlu" is held in a cell and another character tells him: "I am your angel of death, Kaşifoğlu, I will kill you." Kozinoğlu died two days after the broadcast. In episode 139, aired on 8 December 2011, the same character dies after air is injected with a syringe. According to Euronews, the prosecutors' question is straightforward: what flow of information were the writers relying on when they wrote these scenes? The file contains no allegation that the production team committed a crime; the statements are requested to determine the direction of the investigation. Haber 7 headlined the development as an "interesting coincidence".

The grave was opened

On the same day, 13 September 2026, an exhumation was carried out under a prosecutor's supervision at Kocatepe Cemetery in Ümraniye, Istanbul. According to A Haber, a five-member team of three forensic specialists, a chemist and an autopsy technician found that, fifteen years after burial, the body's integrity was preserved, the shroud had not decayed and, in addition to bone, undecomposed soft tissue was present. Samples of organs, soft tissue, bone, shroud and grave soil were handed to the 1st Specialisation Board of the Council of Forensic Medicine. Forensic expert Prof. Dr. Nevzat Alkan said that "obtaining soft tissue is extremely valuable", because a substance introduced into the body could be detected in it. That examination will establish the definitive cause of death.

Fiction versus reality

Since 2003 Kurtlar Vadisi has been debated for dramatising current political and intelligence affairs under fictional names; the question viewers have asked for years, "did the script follow reality, or reality the script?", is now being asked by a prosecutor. The legal distinction matters: a series resembling a real event is not in itself a crime, and the prosecution does not claim it is. It only wants to know what information the scenes in episodes 136 and 139 were written from. The writers' statements are meant to fill that gap.

What happens next?

The forensic report will clarify the cause of death, and the screenwriters' statements will enter the file. As of 14 September 2026 the content of those statements has not been released, the production company has made no public statement, and there is no court ruling. This page relies only on publicly available news sources, keeps the line between allegation and finding, and will be updated as developments come in.