Wounded police officer in İzmir attack praises killed police officer

İZMİR

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The wounded police officer in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack on a courthouse in the western province of İzmir has described the last moments of Fethi Sekin, who was described as a hero after preventing a larger-scale attack.

“Fethi did a very heroic act. He shielded his body in front of a Kalashnikov without thinking. He left his children as orphans in order to save others’ children from becoming orphans,” Oğuzhan Batuhan Atik, 27, the wounded riot police officer in the attack on Jan. 5, told Anadolu Agency in the Tepecik Research and Training Hospital, where he is receiving treatment, as he added that Sekin saved a lot of lives.

“May he rest in peace. He saved a lot of lives. May he rest in heaven,” he also said. 

Atik was wounded after the car driven by PKK militants hit him. 

Saying that the attack was a “one-second incident,” Atik noted that he doesn’t remember what happened after the explosion. 

“I went outside the courthouse for weapon’s change. When I went towards the road from the police cabin, a car steered towards me and hit me. It was a one second incident. He stopped after hitting me and then the terrorist opened the door and started escaping. I fell to the ground on that instant. I saw Fethi running after him. They went across the road, passed the refuge and the car exploded. I was a couple of meters away from the car and then the explosion happened. I wasn’t really affected by the explosion because I was on the ground. I don’t remember what happened after the explosion,” he also said. 

During his interview, Atik said that as the security forces of Turkey, they are ready to give their lives for the country, state and the nation. 

“I heard Fethi shooting twice to the air after the terrorist before the explosion. The end of terrorists will come. The state is determined to do it. We will beat them together,” he also said. 

Two people, of whom one was Sekin and the other was courthouse employee Musa Can, were killed in the PKK attack. Two militants were also killed during the attack.