Abidin Ünal

Abidin Ünal (born January 1, 1953) is a retired Turkish Air Force general and commander of the Turkish Air Force. During his tenure, he was a Senior Member of the NATO Technology and Research Organization General Assembly.

Career

Officer and staff officer Ünal attended the elementary school in Kazancık as well as the middle school in Pınarbaşı and the middle school Demir-Çelik Ortaokulu in Karabük, before he completed training at the vocational school for chemical engineering (Turkish: Kimya Teknisyen Okulu) in Ankara from 1968 to 1972.

On August 17, 2004, Ünal was appointed head of the basic planning department in the Air Force High Command and shortly thereafter, on August 30, 2004, he was promoted to major general (Turkish: Tümgeneral). He then acted from August 4, 2006, to August 12, 2008, as the commander of the Air Force School. In 2008 he was promoted to lieutenant general (co- general ) and appointed head of the department of military attachés and supervision in the general staff. He was appointed as the commander of the Turkish Air Force with the 2015 High Military Council decisions. The Russian Su-24 aircraft, which violated the border during his command, was shot down by Turkish F-16s. After the PKK attacks that started in 2015, extensive air strikes were launched against PKK elements in Iraq. In 2016, on the evening of the military coup attempt, Ünal and other senior members of the Turkish Armed Forces, who were at the wedding of the then Combat Air Force and Air Missile Defense Commander Lieutenant General Mehmet Şanver's daughter, were taken hostage by the soldiers who carried out the coup and taken from Istanbul to the Murted Air Base. In the statement of the prosecutor; He stated that he was a plaintiff and a complainant among the participants in the coup attempt. He was retired on August 21, 2017. He handed over his duty to General Hasan Küçükakyüz.

Personal life Ünal is married and has one child.