Top state officials bid farewell to ex-president’s father-in-law

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

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Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s father-in-law, who died on Feb. 11, was laid to rest in Istanbul on Feb. 12 at a funeral attended by top state officials. 

Ahmet Özyurt, 76, died of heart failure in an Istanbul hospital on Feb. 11.

Gül, Turkey’s 11th president, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman were among the politicians who attended the funeral prayer held at a mosque near the Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology building in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district on Feb. 12.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş, Labor and Social Security Minister Süleyman Soylu, Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Işık, Education Minister Nabi Avcı, former Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, former Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik, former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Istanbul deputy Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and several other politicians and businessmen were also present at the funeral.

Gül, Erdoğan and Davutoğlu carried Özyurt’s coffin, while first lady Emine Erdoğan and Sare Davutoğlu, the prime minister’s wife, expressed their condolences to the former first lady, Hayrünisa Gül.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar also sent wreaths to the funeral. 

High security measures were taken as a police helicopter flew over the mosque during the funeral. Özyürt’s body was taken to Sahrayıcedid Cemetry for burial.

Before the funeral, Gül made an announcement via his Twitter account requesting people to make donations to a charity or an education institute instead of sending wreathes to the funeral.