10/10 Ankara blasts update: March in Didim

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UP to a thousand people joined for a protest walk late Saturday in Didim in protest at the worst terror attack in Turkey in Ankara, which left at least 95 dead, including a student from the town.

didim-de-ankara-da-olen-elif-ve-canberk-icin-7768232_oMembers of the Didim Democracy Platform joined in a walk at about 5.30pm from the old CourtHouse on Ataturk Boulevard to the Ataturk Square.

didim-de-yagmur-altinda-teror-protestosu-7767711_x_oThe walk came in the aftermath of the twin suicide bomb blasts which killed 95 people and maimed close to 300 as crowds gathered in Ankara.

The bombing on October 10 (10/10) occurred shortly at about 10am.

02e835596a7ddd43e117e286a1ad200d_LAmong those killed was a Didim student, Elif  Kanlioglu (pictured right), aged 20, a foreign languages student at the University of Mersin. A second person from Aydin, Canberk Bakış (19) was also killed.

The protestors carried slogans, largely aiming statements at the government, while Didim District Police Department took security measures.

Didim Mayor Deniz Atabay and CHP councilors were among those that gave support to the walk at Ataturk Square.

Although the official death toll was 95 as of late Oct. 11, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) claimed it was 128, with fears that it could further increase given the number of seriously wounded still under intensive care in Ankara hospitals.

In the wake of a horrific suicide bombing (pictured left), Twitter said users across the country were struggling to access the social network. Scattered reports suggest that internet access is also limited.

A link to the bombing has not been confirmed, but the Turkish Prime minister ordered a temporary “publication ban” in the aftermath of the bombing, banning media reporting across the country.

Among the dead was 70-year-old Meryem Bulut, or Mother Meryem, (pictured below left)  a member of the famous Saturday Mothers group, who have protested the disappearance of their loved ones, mostly sons, through silent sit-ins at Galatasaray Square in downtown Istanbul since 1995.

ISTIHBARAT MERYEM (3)Mother Meryem’s death created heartbreak even in the hearts of those who had never met her, as her always smiling pictures were posted widely on social media after the deadly blast.

Mother Meryem’s grandson, Onur Polat, was killed in Shingal in northern Iraq while fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

The 54-year-old Kemal Tayfun Benol is another whose life was ended in Ankara. Travelling to Ankara from Istanbul with his lawyer wife and two sons, Benol was caught by the explosions as he left his family’s side to meet his friends from the trade union.

With Picasso’s famous Guernica painting as his Twitter profile, the scene in which Benol lost his life on Oct. 10 bore chilling similarities to the massacre depicted by the legendary Spanish artist decades ago.

Another victim of the twin explosions in Ankara was Dijle Deli, a university student from Istanbul. Deli hit the road to Ankara late Oct. 9 with her friends, full of joy, singing and chanting. Shared widely on social media after the blast was a selfie she took with friends on the road from Istanbul to Ankara along with the caption: “We are going to Ankara to bring peace.”    

Newly-married couple Yılmaz Elmascan and Gülhan Karlı Elmascan went to death together along with their friends from the United Trade Union of Transportation Workers. Şebnem Yurtman, a member of the Labor Party; Hacı Mehmet Şah from the HDP; and Metin Peşmen, a member of the Pir Sultan Abdal Foundation, were among deaths from Mersin.

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