Victims of the fire in Germany laid to rest in Afyon

AFYONKARAHİSAR - Anatolia News Agency

Crowd carry the coffin of the Nazlı Özcan Soykan, who was killed in a fire along with her seven children in Backnang, a suburb near Stuttgart, Germany. AA photo

The eight Turkish citizens who perished in a fire on March 10 in Backnang, a suburb near the German city of Stuttgart, were laid to rest today in their Turkish hometown of Afyonkarahisar. 

The bodies of Nazlı Özcan Soykan and her seven children were brought to Turkey in a private plane on March 12, amid pleas from Turkish politicians for a rigorous investigation into the incident in order to shed light on its real causes and to determine that it was not xenophobically motivated. German police had announced following the preliminary inspections that there were no indications that the arson was motivated by xenophobia.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu attended the funeral. 

Reports identified the deceased as Nazlı Özcan Soykan, 40, Hatice Soykan, 17, Yılmaz Soykan, 14, Abdülkadir Soykan, 8, İzzet Soykan, 7, Yasin Soykan, 6, Ahmet Soykan, 3, and six-month-old Murat Soykan. The baby was buried alongside his mother.