One of the fallen soldiers, Fatih Yonca (24), sent money he was paid during his military service back home to support his family members, who reside in southeastern İskenderun province. Yonca was paid TL 120 monthly by the military and would send TL 100 to his mother whenever he got paid because of his family’s poverty. His family was devastated by the news of his death, with his mother, Gülsüm Yonca, breaking down beside her son’s coffin at the funeral. “You promised to save me from poverty and this [old] house. Would you return here in a coffin?” the grieving mother lamented.
Ferit Demir (21) called his mother twice before being killed in the attack. “My son … called me twice on the day of the attack. He told me they were going to head out to conduct an operation,” Demir’s mother said as she wept.
Onur Bozdemir (21) also talked to his mother before the tragic operation, and told his family that he knew he would be killed. “Mom, I will be martyred,” he had told his mother. Another of the slain soldiers, Kemal Pide, had only 84 days left before he was to complete his military service and return home.
Yakup Mutlu, from the eastern province of Muş, had plans to marry his fiancée after completing his military service. “My brother asked me to handle the preparations for his wedding until he returned home; he didn’t want to lose any more time. But he wasn’t able to get married in the end,” Mutlu’s brother told reporters.
Noncommissioned officer Harun Arslanbey, 32, was married with two children. He served for five years on the İmralı prison island where the jailed leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, is serving a lifetime sentence.
The girlfriend of Cengiz Sarıbaş (21) said she had recovered from cancer with his help. “He used to say that he would love me until he died. He kept his promise,” Kübra Deniz Şahin said. Sarıbaş’ father, Talip Sarıbaş, said: “My son was martyred in a heinous ambush. [The soldiers] wouldn’t have been killed if the terrorists were brave enough to face them and fight. I beg the commanders of my son: Please give his clothes and rifle to me. I will fight against the terrorists in my son’s place.”
