Music teacher Şenay Aybüke Yalçın who was killed in an terrorist attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Batman was laid to rest in the Osmancık district of the northern Anatolian province of Çorum on Sunday.
Yalçın (22) was heavily wounded in the PKK’s terrorist attack on Batman Mayor Veysi Işık’s vehicle on June 9 while she was heading home in another vehicle after attending a ceremony to distribute report cards on the last day of semester before the summer break.
A memorial service was also held in Batman province on Saturday for young teacher Şenay Aybüke Yalçın. Many teachers, students, and Yalçın’s family attended the ceremony, along with Governor Ahmet Deniz. During the ceremony, Deniz underscored the determination to continue the fight against terrorism, saying, “Our war on terrorism will continue until the last member of the armed terrorist group is killed. No one should doubt it.”
After the service, Yalçın was transported to Ankara to be buried in her hometown, Osmancık, in Çorum province. Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Governor Necmeddin Kılıç, Çorum Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs Salim Uslu and Ahmet Sami Ceylan, and Tufan Köse, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), attended the funeral, as well as thousands of others, including Yalçın’s students on Sunday.
Speaking at the funeral, Yalçın’s father, Sadık Yalçın, said “no one can discourage us.”
Education Minister Yılmaz, meanwhile, said “they are in mourning,” and stated that “Terror will never win and it’s bound to lose. As 80 million people, we will continue working nonstop to make our country’s future better and more beautiful in unity and fraternity. We will make Aybüke’s memory live on. The people won’t forget those working for them.”
Yalçın’s name will be given to the music classroom that she made for the school, according to the school’s principal, Mahmut Işık, who also said she was the youngest teacher at the school and was loved by her students. “When she came to our school, there was no music classroom. With her efforts, she made us a music room and supplied the musical instruments all by herself. We are saddened by losing a very successful teacher,” Işık said.
Her students said Yalçın approached the pupils with a “mother’s affection.” “She taught us a lot in such a short period of time. She was not only our music teacher, but also was a partner of our miseries. She was a teacher, but she was more like our mother,” student Dilek Avcı said.”
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU, resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015. Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of around 1,200 people, including women and children.
June 11, 2017
