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October 10, 2015... Dozens of people from all across Turkey set out for the capital city of Ankara. They were on their way to the peace rally. Their path was full of songs, folk songs and folk dances.
Most groups who arrived in Ankara started gathering in front of the Ankara Train Station. The first suicide bomb went off at 10.04 am. Then, another...
103 "doves of peace" lost their lives. Over 400 were wounded.
Among the deceased were 9-year-old Veysel, 71-year-old Peace Mother Meryem, cleaning worker Berna...
One of the survivors of the October 10 Ankara Massacre was the United Transportation Workers' Union (BTS) worker Can Ataş.
Remembering October 10, 2015, he says, "We came from Adana to Ankara with 10 friends. We wanted to say stop to the conflict and war that had been gradually escalating in our country and geography and to express our demand for peace in Ankara. We were hopeful."
'I was wounded by the second bomb'
However Ataş's and dozens of other peace defenders' hope was deeply wounded by the two suicide bombs that exploded that day.
Ataş looks back on October 10, 2015.
"The place was like a beehive; the bombs exploded and it turned into hell," he says, adding that the second bomb went off without him understanding what was going on and he was wounded by this bomb.
He moves on to tell what happened afterwards:
"My both feet were broken into pieces. I passed out for some time; they took me to a hospital afterwards. My heart stopped while I was waiting my turn for a medical intervention at the hospital.
"Then came five-six surgical operations. I got out of the intensive care unit five days later and received treatment for 23 months. My first discharge from hospital was four months later."
Speaking about the 103 people who lost their lives in Ankara, Can Ataş says, "14 of the deceased were my friends from our union. I lost five of the 10 friends with whom I had come from Adana. I was so sorry, I was so devastated. I am at a loss for words to explain it."
'Peace means children live'
Since that day, peace has meant to him that more innocent people and children live. Concluding his remarks, he says:
"What keeps me going is the memories of my friends. I will struggle for peace until my last breath. No to war, peace right now..."
The Ankara Massacre
A suicide attack was launched against the Peace Rally in Ulus, Altındağ in the capital city of Ankara at around 10.04 a.m. on October 10, 2015. While 69 people lost their lives at the scene of the incident, a total of 103 people and two attackers lost their lives. After the bombs exploded, police officers used tear gas on the wounded and those who were trying to help them. As a result of this intervention, the wounded could not be referred to hospitals quickly and the survivors were also traumatized. The scene of the incident was not placed under protection and crime scene investigation teams and prosecutors did not come to the scene immediately. The teams arrived after about one and a half hours and deputy public prosecutor after two and a half hours. The indictment concerning the attack was approved on July 13, 2016. Accordingly, the order for the attack was given by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) representative to Turkey, İlhami Balı. It was stated in the indictment that it was the same people who organized the Suruç bombing, which had killed 33 people. Fourteen suspects including Balı face from 5,083 to 7,820 years in prison on the charges of "attempted murder multiple times" and "attempting to annihilate constitutional order". The trial started on November 7, 2016. On August 3, 2018, the Ankara 4th Heavy Penal Court handed an aggravated life sentence for "violating the constitutional order" and 100 aggravated life sentences for "wilful murder" to nine defendants. They were also sentenced to 10,557 years in prison each for "attempted murder" (Abdulmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakup Şahin, Hakan Şahin, İbrahim Halil Alçay, Resul Demir, Hüseyin Tunç and Hacı Ali Durmaz). The trial of the fugitive defendants is continuing as their cases were separated. The families of the deceased hold a commemoration ceremony on the 10th day of every month in front of the Train Station. The peace rally participants who lost their lives in the massacre are: Abdülkadir Uyan, Metin Kürklü, Gökhan Akman, Orhan Işıktaş, Gülhan Karlı Elmascan, Yılmaz Elmascan, Nevzat Sayan, Bilgen Parlak, Hacı Kıvrak, Rıdvan Akgül, Rıdvan Akgül, Hacı Mehmet Şah Esin, Gökmen Dalmaç, Elif Kanlıoğlu, Hakan Dursun Akalın, Ercan Adsız, Ayşe Deniz, Berna Koç, Fatma Esen, Gülbahar Aydeniz, Eren Akın, Canberk Bakış, Tayfun Benol, Nizamettin Bağcı, Kasım Otur, Başak Sidar Çevik, Nilgün Çevik, Resul Yanar, Mehmet Ali Kılıç, Tekin Arslan, Sezen Vurmaz, Dilaver Karharman, Onur Tan, Umut Tan, Sarıgül Tüylü, Dilan Sarıkaya, Ali Kitapçı, İsmail Kızılçay, Muhammet Demir, Korkmaz Tedik, Veysel Atılgan, İbrahim Atılgan, Emine Ercan, Kübra Meltem Mollaoğlu, Meryem Bulut, Seyhan Yaylagül, Ebru Mavi, Ali Deniz Uzatmaz, Ziya Saygın, Vahdettin Özgan, Cemal Avşar, Ahmet Katurlu, Selim Örs, Azize Onat, Dicle Deli, Güney Doğan, Binali Korkmaz, Mehmet Zakir Karabulut, Leyla Çiçek, Metin Peşman, Mesut Mak, Adil Gür, Gökhan Gökbönü, Şebnem Yurtman, Osman Turan Bozacı, İdil Güneyi, Abdullah Erol, Mehmet Hayta, Özver Gökhan Arpaçay, Şirin Kılıçalp, Uygar Coşgun, Ahmed Alkhadi, Nurullah Erdoğan, Gözde Arslan, Aycan Kaya, Yunus Delice, Sevgi Öztekin, Mehmet Tevfik Dalgıç, Sevim Şinik, Emin Aydemir, Fatma Karabulut, Ramazan Tunç, Erol Ekici, Feyyat Deniz, Necla Duran, Osman Ervasa, Ramazan Çalışkan, Vedat Erkan, Abdülbari Şenci, Niyazi Büyüksütçü, Gazi Güray, Sabri Elmas, Erhan Avcı, Ümit Seylan, Serdar Ben, Nevzat Özbilgi, Hasan Baykara, Fatma Batur, Bedriye Batur, Ata Önder Atabay, Mustafa Budak, Ağa Bayar. |
(EMK/SD)
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