Ankara union members bid farewell to member lost in bombing

ANKARA

Emel Kitapçı (2nd L) and Artun Siyah Kitapçı, the wife and son of Ali Kitapçı, a victim of Saturday's bomb blasts, attend a commemoration in Ankara, Turkey, October 12, 2015. Reuters Photo

One of the 97 victims of the twin Ankara bombing, Ali Kitapçı, the secretary of the United Trade Union of Transport Employees’ (BTS) Ankara branch, has been laid to rest in the Turkish capital, following a ceremony held at the city’s main train station where the bombs were detonated. 

A commemoration was held in front of the Ankara train station on Oct. 12, for Kitapçı and attorney Uygar Coşkun, which Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ankara lawmaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder also attended. 

“There is a massacre here. May we not benefit from the bread we eat, the water we drink if we do not call [the people] to account,” Önder said. “We will make their memories live with our struggles.” 

Emel Kitapçı, the wife of Ali Kitapçı, and her son Artun Siyah Kitapçı, 11, and many members of the BTS also attended the commemoration at the explosion site. 

Kitapçı was later taken to the Karşıyaka cemetery, where he was laid to rest, with a BTS pennant left on top of his coffin. 

Members of the BTS placed a placard reading “Our martyrs who we lost in the struggle for democracy and peace, we will not forget,” at the mosque, where a last prayer was held for Kitapçı. 

Explaining the explosion, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said during a televised broadcast on Oct. 12 that the attack was launched by two suicide bombers.