Soldier misses his own wedding due to ‘unsecured road’

OSMANİYE – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A bride held her wedding ceremony without a groom in western Turkey after a gendarmerie sergeant on duty in a southeastern border station could not attend his own wedding due to unsafe roads.

Gendarmerie sergeant Ahmet Karavelioğlu, 25, missed his own wedding ceremony with Fatma Karavelioğlu, 21. 

The groom reportedly had received permission from his military unit for his wedding. However, when the wedding day came, he was not allowed to leave, on the grounds that the road was unsecure. 

The wedding took place despite the absence of the groom, while the bride and groom’s parents were seen crying from time to time during the ceremony. 

The Karavelioğlus officially got married before but delayed the wedding party until Sept. 18. The families were prepared for the wedding with invitations sent and guests arriving at their house in the southern province of Osmaniye. 

Although the groom said he could not leave his military unit because the road from the southeastern Hakkari province to Osmaniye was not safe, the family did not cancel or delay the party but instead, made it without the groom. 

The groom’s parents, Hamza and Fatma, were seen in tears during the party due to absence of their son at the wedding party.

Several soldiers and police officers have been killed in landmine explosions detonated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) despite soldiers travelling in armored vehicles.