Fallen police officers laid to rest
TRABZON – Doğan News Agency
Cihan Photo
Three police officers who were killed in attacks by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants over the weekend in southeastern Turkey have been laid to rest.Soner Yıldırım, 24, a police officer killed by PKK militants on Sept. 13 in southeastern Şırnak province, was laid to rest in the Black Sea province of Trabzon on Sept. 14.
He was laid to rest in Trabzon’s Tonya district on Sept. 14 after a funeral prayer held at the İskenderli Neighborhood Merkez Mosque.
Apart from his family and friends, Trabzon Gov. Abdil Celil Öz, Trabzon Mayor Orhan Fevzi Gümrükçüoğlu, Garrison Commander Gendarmerie Colonel Okçin Akşit and Police Chief Murat Köksal attended the funeral.
One of Yıldırım’s relatives, Ayşe Bektaş, voiced her protest against Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies during the funeral. She said they did not want to see AKP deputies at the funeral because university students who graduated from education faculties were forced to become police officers since the government does not appoint them as teachers. A group of people applauded Bektaş to support her statement.
Police officer Şahin Altmış, who was killed in the same attack in Şırnak, was laid to rest in the eastern province of Malatya on Sept. 13. Another police officer, Ali Öztürk, who was killed in a PKK attack in southeastern Diyarbakır’s Silvan district on Sept. 13, was laid to rest in Diyarbakır’s Çermik district on Sept. 13.
A total of three police officers were killed and seven were wounded on Sept. 13 in two separate attacks by the PKK in Şırnak and Diyarbakır. PKK militants detonated a bomb-laden vehicle in front of a police checkpoint in Şırnak early in the morning, killing Yıldırım and Altmış and wounding five others. Two militants responsible for the attack were killed as an air-supported operation began to apprehend the other fleeing militants.
In the other PKK attack which killed Öztürk in Silvan, two others, including a civilian, were wounded.