After the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Yıldıran was promoted to binbashi. In 1980, after the military coup which took place the same year, he was sent to the Diyarbakır Prison by Kenan Evren in person. He tortured inmates in the prison and viewed the prison as a school in which inmates would be subjected to Turkification. Yıldıran had a German shepherd called "Jo", which was trained to bite the genitals of naked prisoners; all inmates were obligated to salute the dog.