The funeral for Aydın, who died on Wednesday, was scheduled for yesterday afternoon in Bursa.Aydın had been among the wounded when a band of operatives from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) approached the Sarıyayla gendarmerie outpost, 35 kilometers from downtown Tunceli, at around 11 p.m. on April 30, first opening fire on the outpost and then launching a rocket attack. The clash between the terrorists and soldiers had lasted 45 minutes, leaving five soldiers dead and seven more injured, two of them -- including Aydın -- critically.
The Sarıyayla gendarmerie outpost is located along a route frequently used by PKK terrorists to sneak into Turkey. Reinforcements came only in the morning because they had to walk the 35 kilometers from Tunceli in pouring rain as helicopters could not fly due to heavy fog in the region. These units went after the terrorists once they arrived in Sarıyayla. However, civilians made it to the outpost and treated wounded soldiers only a few hours after the gruesome onslaught began.
