Relatives criticize authorities at funeral of police officers in Turkey’s south

ADANA – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Two police officers who were killed on Sept. 28 in a gun attack in the Seyhan district of the southern Adana province were laid to rest on Sept. 29, with their relatives criticizing the government’s shifted stance on the Kurdish peace process.

Police officers Süleyman Çakır and Bircan İlhanlı were killed in a shooting by two assailants wearing helmets and masks on a motorbike in front of a private hospital around 8 p.m. on Sept. 28, with long barreled weapons. 

An official ceremony was held for Çakır, 39, and İlhanlı, 48, in front of the Adana Governor’s office on Sept. 29. 

Çakır’s aunt, Özgül Ateş, shouted her criticisms against the authorities for the recent stall in the peace process. “You were saying peace then. What they call peace now causes the killing of our sons. Now you will make me stand on trial for telling the truth,” Ateş said during the funeral ceremony. 

An unidentified person at the funeral said, “What happened to those in the refrigerator? When will they get out of it?” following a speech by Adana Gov. Mustafa Büyük. He was apparently referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s previous remarks saying the Kurdish peace process has been put in the “refrigerator” since the June 7 general election.

Both police officers, sitting in a police vehicle, were badly wounded as the assailants fled the scene. Çakır succumbed to his injuries at the hospital’s intensive care unit while İlhanlı died at a university hospital during an operation. Both officers had two children.

Meanwhile, Adana Gov. Büyük said wide scale operations are being conducted in the region to apprehend the assailants, suspected to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) according to initial reports.

Two other police officers were killed on July 31 in a gun attack by PKK militants on a police station in the Pozantı district, which also left two militants dead.