Funeral ceremony of Turkish police officer Fethi Sekin and courthouse officer Musa Can, who were killed in a car bombing on Thursday, in Izmir, yesterday.
Istanbul: Turkey gave a hero’s farewell yesterday to a policeman who prevented a massacre during the country’s latest attack, as reports suggested the Istanbul nightclub gunman may still be in the city.
Turkey was shaken just 75 minutes into the New Year by the gun attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people, including 27 foreigners.
But just four days later on Thursday, militants detonated an explosives-packed car in front of the main courthouse in Izmir and then engaged in gun battles with police.
A policeman and a court worker were killed, as well as two attackers. Another was still on the run. Nine people were wounded but none of their lives are believed to be in danger.
Whereas Islamic State (IS) jihadists had claimed the Istanbul night club attack—the group’s first ever claim of a major attack in Turkey—the government blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the Izmir bloodshed.
Turkish officials led by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim hailed the heroism of slain Izmir policeman Fethi Sekin who prevented even greater loss of life by stopping the car and then seeking to chase down the militants.
“He prevented a greater disaster by ignoring his own life and by giving his life, he showed great heroism, neutralising those committing these cowardly plans,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said late Thursday.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, who attended the ceremony, said 18 people were detained in connection with the blast and the identity established of the “terrorists”, whom he said had planned to wreak havoc inside the court.
Police seized two Kalashnikovs, seven rockets and eight grenades suggesting a far more bloody attack was planned.
Thousands applauded in emotional scenes as Sekin’s coffin was brought out of the Izmir courthouse before being given the rare honour of a funeral ceremony in Izmir’s famous Konak Square.
His body was then to be taken to his home region of Elazig in the east for burial.
The PKK is a proscribed terror organisation by Ankara, the United States and European Union and has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
The usually peaceful port city, Turkey’s third largest metropolis, is the gateway to the plush beach resorts of the Aegean and rarely sees violence on this scale.
Police arrest 18 over Izmir terror attack
Izmir: AT least 18 suspects linked to Thursday’s gun-and-bomb terrorist attack which killed two officials in western Izmir province were arrested, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said yesterday.
Bozdag confirmed the numbers at the funeral ceremony held for the martyred police officer.
Identities of the terrorists were verified but could not be revealed for the sake of the investigation, Bozdag told reporters.
Meanwhile, two people held in connection with the gun-and-bomb terrorist attack in Izmir were released yesterday, according to a police source.
The attack occurred just outside a courthouse when police officer Fethi Sekin stopped a suspicious vehicle, which turned out to be carrying explosives.
The clash and a car-bomb attack left Sekin and a court official martyred and five others injured as a bigger blast was thwarted, according to Governor Erol Ayyildiz.
Turkey has suffered several terrorist attacks over the last month. On December 10, a twin bomb attack in Istanbul by the PKK terrorist group left 46 people—mostly police officers – martyred.
A week later, a suicide car bomb attack by the PKK hit a public bus in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri, martyring 14 soldiers.
