Ministry to end ‘natural disaster’ debacle for Afyon victims

STOCKHOLM - Agence France-Presse

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Turkey’s Defense Ministry has announced plans to revise the cause of death for the military victims of last month’s Afyonkarahisar munitions blast after loved ones and NGOs expressed their fury at the military’s decision to suggest the soldiers had died in a “natural disaster.”
 
The ministry said the term failed to describe the concrete event in question, daily Hürriyet reported.
 
The families of soldiers killed in the massive munitions blast expressed bewilderment after they received letters from the military informing them their loved ones “were martyred due to a natural disaster during their duty.”
 
The definition means the families will not receive as much compensation as the relatives of soldiers killed in terrorist attacks would.
 
The 25 soldiers were killed Sept. 5 when a munitions depot exploded as they were conducting a night-time inventory at a base in the western province of Afyonkarahisar. Another four soldiers and three civilians suffered minor injuries.