Funerals held for three officers

HATAY - Doğan News Agency

The bodies of the 3 officers were sent to their hometowns after a ceremony. AA photo

The bodies of three officers who fell during an engagement with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on May 17 were sent to their respective hometowns following a ceremony in the southern province of Hatay.

Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel, Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Gendarmerie force commander Gen. Bekir Kalyoncu joined the ceremony in Hatay.

The bodies of Maj. Erhan Dikmen, a provincial gendarmerie intelligence branch director, Lt. Aytaç Kaya and Lt. Ahmet Tarım were brought to Hatay Airport on May 18 and later delivered to the central province of Kırıkkale, the eastern province of Elazığ and the Aegean province of Kütahya, respectively, following a ceremony that lasted for about half an hour on May 18.

The three officers had lost their lives when PKK militants attacked them with rocket launchers while they were out in the field on the outskirts of Mount Amanos in Hatay’s Dörtyol district. Gendarmerie commando and special operations police units are still engaged in the region in a sweeping operation that began in wake of the deaths.