Why are Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu actors Sedat Savtak (Kaşifoğlu) and Emin Olcay (Ömer Baba) being questioned in the Kozinoğlu investigation?

21 September 2026 — The Kaşif Kozinoğlu investigation has reached the cast of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu after its screenwriters. According to an İhlas News Agency (İHA) report published by Habertürk at 16.27, the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office will hear Sedat Savtak, who played "Kazım Kaşifoğlu", as a witness at the Silivri Courthouse. The same afternoon Haber7 (Şule Altınel, 17.39), Ensonhaber (17.12) and Sondakika (17.19) reported that Emin Olcay, the series' "Ömer Baba", would also be heard in the same capacity; Takvim (15.24, updated 18.28) and GZT (15.56) covered both actors in one story. A Demirören News Agency (DHA) report in Hürriyet (Ayşe Gürel, 15.42, updated 17.47) confirmed Savtak's summons. No source gives a day or time; when this was written the statements had not yet been taken. Neither man is a suspect: in Turkish procedure a "person with knowledge" (bilgi sahibi) is someone the prosecutor consults, with no accusation against them.

Who is Sedat Savtak and what did he play?

According to his Wikipedia biography he was born on 20 October 1963 in Eskişehir, graduated from the theatre department of Mimar Sinan University in 1988 and worked at the Diyarbakır and Antalya State Theatres. In Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu he played "Kazım Kaşifoğlu" in 2011 — the character at the centre of the series' link to the case: held in a cell and threatened in episode 136 (aired 10 November 2011) and killed with a syringe in episode 139 (8 December 2011); details are in the earlier stories. Three days before the summons, on 18 September, Savtak appeared live on CNN Türk. Hürriyet reported his words that evening (21.22): "When I heard about the Kozinoğlu case I thought about it too. I didn't know I was playing Kozinoğlu." He said he had no knowledge of the script and that Pana Film had called him: "I have no information about the script. Pana Film called me." Asked whether any information had come from intelligence services, he said: "No information came to me, I know nothing about that." He added that he learned the character would die only when he read the script and that they shot the scene "as a heart attack". According to Sondakika he had said he later learned of Kozinoğlu's death from the newspapers and was surprised by the comparison.

Why is Emin Olcay being called?

In identical wording, Haber7 and Ensonhaber report that Olcay will be consulted "because of the series' production process, the changes after Osman Sınav left the project, and the striking statements he previously made about the script". Olcay, who spent long years as an actor and director at the State Theatre, played Polat Alemdar's father Ömer Candan — "Ömer Baba" — in Kurtlar Vadisi from 2003 and continued the role in Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu; according to Sabah, the character's name comes from the father of the show's first director and producer Osman Sınav ("The name Ömer is the name of the late Osman Sınav's father"). Takvim attributes the summons to "judicial sources"; neither Olcay nor Savtak had commented publicly on being called when this was written.

What had Olcay said?

The interview behind the summons reports was published the same morning: Tuba Kalçık's conversation with him for Sabah's Günaydın supplement, carried by T24 at 08.11 and Memurlar.net at 09.53. Olcay said the cast were "surprised" when Osman Sınav left the series, and described what followed: "After Osman the series began turning to politics. […] The script gradually deteriorated." The sentence highlighted by Takvim and GZT touches the very question the prosecution is asking: "I mean, I was suspicious too — there were times I thought, unless they got this information from someone, how do they know these things? There were times I thought something must be coming from somewhere for them to write it." This is Olcay's impression at the time; it is not a finding or a document showing that the production received information, and Olcay names no one. On the investigation he said: "I find it very right that an investigation was opened. Let the truth come out, whatever it is. If they did wrong things, let them serve their punishment…" and "I hope they will be clean in the rest of their lives, because these are young people with days ahead of them. May God open their path."

The remarks about the Şaşmaz brothers, and the absence of a reply

In the same interview Olcay said he was "very hurt" by producer Raci Şaşmaz and lead actor Necati Şaşmaz, said "they are not people like their father or grandfather", and said he did not regard them as "good, honest, decent men" ("iyi, dürüst, düzgün adamlar değiller"); BirGün ran these remarks under the headline "explosive statements" (zehir zemberek açıklamalar). According to T24 he also claimed that Sınav had handed the series Kurtlar Vadisi and Ekmek Teknesi to the Şaşmaz brothers "free of charge" and that Sınav had carried a gun on set "as a precaution"; he said he had tried for a long time to leave the show, and, describing his doubts about the script, added: "I tried to talk several times but they didn't answer, so I kept quiet." All of this is Olcay's personal account and judgement. Apart from Raci Şaşmaz's 16 September statement to Yeni Asır that the series was "entirely fiction", no reply to Olcay from the Şaşmaz brothers or Pana Film appeared in any source when this was written. Olcay's criticism of the brothers is not the subject of the investigation; reports describe the topics he will be asked about only as "the production process and the script".

What else happened in the investigation that day?

According to DHA's report in Hürriyet, on the prosecutor's instruction the Istanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Command's Public Order Branch conducted simultaneous operations in Istanbul and Tekirdağ against four suspects: former journalist Osman Arslan, ambulance driver Süleyman Kaba, then prison director Ömer Vatan and then shift supervisor Kazım Beyke were detained. Kaba was released after his gendarmerie statement "in view of the current state of the evidence"; Arslan was remanded in custody on charges of "espionage" and "membership of an organisation"; Vatan and Beyke were released under judicial control. The same report says Enver Altaylı, convicted in FETÖ proceedings, will be brought from Ankara to Istanbul to testify. Hürriyet also relayed a detail given on 18 September by CNN Türk's Istanbul news coordinator Nihat Uludağ: Kozinoğlu had consumed only tinned food in his last days but drank Turkish coffee on the day he died, and "this is the point the prosecutor is investigating". That is a journalist's account; there is no public statement from the prosecution on it. Custody and judicial-control decisions are the accusation stage, not convictions.

Known and unknown

Known as of the evening of 21 September 2026: Savtak and Olcay will be heard as witnesses (İHA, DHA, Haber7, Takvim, GZT); screenwriters Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener and Cüneyt Aysan were heard in the same capacity on 14 September; on 16 September the prosecution appointed an expert panel for specific episodes; Savtak's 18 September CNN Türk remarks and Olcay's 21 September Sabah interview are public; the same day brought four detentions, one arrest, two judicial-control releases and one release. Unknown: the date of the two actors' statements; what they will be asked (the file is under a confidentiality order); whether Olcay's "how do they know" impression carries any weight for the prosecution; the Şaşmaz brothers' and Pana Film's reply to Olcay; the outcome of the expert and Forensic Medicine reports. This story deliberately does not use "suspect" or "defendant" for either actor; no source does.

What happens next?

The next thresholds are the taking of Savtak's and Olcay's statements, Enver Altaylı's testimony, the expert panel's report on the episodes and the Forensic Medicine Institute's 1st Specialisation Board report on the cause of death. Like the screenwriters' statements, the actors' will form part of the context the prosecution is gathering on what the 2011 episodes were written from; whether their content is disclosed depends on the confidentiality order. This story will be updated when the statements are taken and when the production responds; the earlier steps — the screenwriters' statements and the expert review — are linked under "Related stories".