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Another soldier killed as PKK violence continues to escalate
A group of terrorists opened fire on a team of soldiers near the Vergili gendarmerie outpost in Gercüş at around 10 p.m. During the ensuing clash, which lasted nearly an hour, Pvt. Süleyman Tekgül was killed and two other soldiers, including a lieutenant, were injured. Additional units were transferred to the region following the attack and an operation was launched to capture the assailants. The two injured soldiers were taken to the Diyarbakır Military Hospital.
Tekgül’s body was sent to his hometown in the Sorgun district of Yozgat after a ceremony in the courtyard of the Diyarbakır Military Hospital. Tekgül was reportedly the oldest of five children.
PKK assailants also attacked a post office in Diyarbakır with Molotov cocktails late Tuesday. A fire broke out in the building, which was put out by firefighters. An investigation has been launched into the attack.
The PKK has stepped up its attacks against the military in southeastern Turkey after ending a 14-month cease-fire at the start of June.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began in 1984 when the PKK took up arms against the state with the aim of creating a separate Kurdish homeland.
Yesterday saw funerals for the three soldiers killed when outlawed PKK terrorists attacked a gendarmerie outpost in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district early Tuesday. Pvt. Volkan Yulalı, Pvt. Erkan Karadeniz and Pvt. Mahmut Yalçındağ were buried in their hometowns, the Digor district of Kars, the Halfeli district of Iğdır province and Gaziantep, respectively.
 Erkan Akdeniz’s family shed tears and chanted mournful slogans on Wednesday during the slain soldier’s funeral in Iğdır. |
Akdeniz’s body was brought to Iğdır from Hakkari early yesterday for his funeral. Akdeniz’s grieving uncle condemned PKK terror. Erkan Akdeniz’s brother Mehmet Akdeniz died in 1997 after stepping on a land mine planted by the PKK in the southeastern province of Şırnak. “His brother was killed in Şırnak in 1997, and 13 years later Erkan was killed in Hakkari. He had been in the military for just eight months,” Akdeniz’s uncle Abdullah Akdeniz said.
A ceremony was held for Akdeniz in the municipal square in Iğdır before his body was sent to Halfeli for burial with the participation of top Iğdır officials and the soldier’s relatives. Locals shouted slogans against the PKK during the ceremony. Mother Gögeç Akdeniz lamented her son’s death throughout the ceremony in Kurdish. While the soldier’s body was carried to a vehicle to be transferred to Halfeli, locals shouted, “Turks and Kurds are brothers.” Akdeniz was buried next to his brother in the Halfeli graveyard after a funeral prayer.
In Gaziantep, Pvt. Yalçındağ was buried following a prayer at the Ulu Mosque. Hundreds attended the funeral including the soldier’s grieving family and top Gaziantep officials. Fethiye Yalçındağ, his mother, was seen weeping, saying, “My son is looking at me,” in front of her son’s coffin. Funeral attendees shouted slogans condemning the PKK. The soldier was buried at the Yeşilkent graveyard following the ceremony.
There were also lamentations in Kurdish at the funeral of Pvt. Yulalı in Kars, where the relatives of the soldier gathered to take the body from Kars State Hospital. The soldier was to be buried in the village of Digor.
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