After taking part in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Yıldıran was promoted to major.

In 1980, after the military coup which took place the same year, he was sent to the Diyarbakır Prison by Kenan Evren in person.

[8] Yıldıran had a German shepherd called "Co" ("Joe"), which was trained to bite the genitals of naked prisoners;[6] all inmates were obligated to salute the dog.

Yıldıran's torture methods were the subject of the Turkish television series "Bu Kalp Seni Unutur mu?"

[14] In 2013, a Turkish court sentenced the journalist Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı to a suspended prison term of ten months and fined him for writing that Yıldıran was a torturer.