Young victims of 2008 terror attack in southeastern Türkiye remembered

By Ahmet Kaplan

DIYARBAKIR, Türkiye (AA) – The young victims of a horrific 2008 terror attack in Türkiye were remembered on Tuesday in a ceremony in the country’s southeast.

On Jan. 3, 2008, a PKK bomb attack hit a group of students in Diyarbakir, taking the lives of Eren Sahin Eronat, Salih Ekinci, Melek Ipek, Ridvan Suer, Ferhat Mutlu and Engin Taskin along with Cengiz Kaya, a parent, and also leaving 73 people injured.

On the 15th anniversary of the attack, the commemorative ceremony was attended by the families of the victims, survivors, and local officials.

Carnations were left on a table decorated with the Turkish flag and the photos of the victims.

Justice and Development (AK) Party Diyarbakır Deputy Oya Eronat, who lost her son Eren Sahin in the attack, said at the ceremony: “Apart from here, explosions took place in many parts of Diyarbakir, in many cities of Türkiye. We buried our young. Which of them can we distinguish from the other? All of them were very precious, they were all children of a mother.”

Praising a longstanding protest of local families against the terrorist PKK and a political party accused of supportingit, Eronat said: “I applaud the very valuable actions of the families in Van, Hakkari, Sirnak, Izmir and Berlin, who want to save their children from the terrorist group, like the Diyarbakir parents.”

She said “so-called politicians” support the terrorist PKK by using the children of the region.

“What did they add to Diyarbakir, what work do they have in this city? Let me tell you, blood and tears,” she said.

The sit-in protest against the PKK terror group in southeastern Türkiye began in September 2019 in Diyarbakir, when three mothers said their children had been forcibly recruited by YPG/PKK terrorists.

The sit-in outside the offices of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) – a party currently facing a closure case, and which the government accuses of having links to the terrorist YPG/PKK – has been growing every day.

Demonstrations have also spread to other provinces, including Van, Mus, Sirnak, and Hakkari.

Also speaking at the event, Diyarbakir Governor Ali Ihsan Su said the PKK is without morals and massacres students, teachers, soldiers, police, civilian citizens, children, and babies.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the terror group’s Syrian branch.