Turkey: Martyred teachers honored on Teachers' Day

TRABZON, Turkey

In honor of Teachers' Day on Nov. 24, Turkey on Tuesday once again commemorated teachers martyred in the country by the PKK terrorist organization.

Besides its deadly attacks on Turkish security forces, the terror group has targeted teachers like Necmettin Yilmaz, Senay Aybuke Yalcin, Nese Alten, Ayse and Numan Konakci, Yasemin and Bayram Tekin and hundreds of other fellow educators in a bid to disturb the peace and security of the country.

Senay Aybuke Yalcin, a 22-year-old music teacher in the southeastern Batman province, was killed by PKK terrorists on June 9, 2017.

Yalcin was returning to her home in the district of Kozluk after handing out her students' report cards on the last day of the school year when she was heavily injured in the crossfire of an attack by the terror group on then-Kozluk Mayor Veysi Isik. She died later of her wounds in the hospital.

Just days later, elementary school teacher Necmettin Yilmaz, 23, also fell victim to PKK terrorism. He was kidnapped by a group of terrorists in the Pulumur district of the eastern Tunceli province. His burnt-out vehicle was found on June 16, while his body was recovered almost a month later near the Pulumur Stream.

Nese Alten pursued a career in teaching in the steps of her father, Hasan Alten. Both were martyred by PKK terrorists on Oct. 26, 1993, in the Bismil district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

On the same day, the terrorists also martyred a teacher couple, Numan and Ayse Konakci, in Bismil's Babahaki village.

In their honor, a school in the Hirka village of southwestern Denizli province's Tavas district was named after Numan Konakci, while his wife Ayse Konakci's name was given to another school in the same district's town of Ulukent.

On Oct. 25, 1993, the terrorist group had this time martyred not only a teacher couple but their young daughter as well in the eastern Bitlis province's Duzkoy Erikli village.

Teachers Yasemin and Bayram Tekin and their daughter were martyred while Yasemin was pregnant with their second child.

Yasemin's name was given to a school in Bitlis's Tatvan district.

6 teachers martyred 1 day by PKK

On Sept. 11, 1994, six teachers, Rustem Sen, Metin Kaynar, Ali Ihsan Cetinkaya, Mustafa Karinca, Buminhan Temizkan and Vedat Inan, were all martyred by terrorists.

All six were murdered by the PKK terrorists at the school's housing site in the eastern Tunceli province's Mazgirt district.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

The Turkish National Education Ministry on its website published the names of teacher martyrs, including those martyred by PKK terrorists, along with the date and place of their death. Here as follows;

*Contribution and writing by Merve Aydogan in Ankara.