Family Loses 18 Members İn Ankara Bombing: Relative

Eighteen people from a family living in the southeastern province of Siirt have been killed in the Ankara bombing, a relative of the family has said.

Hülya Ünal, 26, a woman who lost 18 of her relatives in the twin blasts of Oct. 10 ahead of a peaceful demonstration in the Turkish capital, said she had seen the funerals of 15 relatives killed in the Ankara bombing since Oct. 10, speaking to daily Hürriyet while waiting outside the Forensic Medical Institute to receive news of three other relatives.

Ünal said she got off a bus a few minutes before the explosion and started walking to the Ankara Train Station, outside of which was the point of gathering for participants of the Oct. 10 demonstration.

"My relatives who came from Siirt kept calling me on the phone to tell me where they were" said Ünal, adding that her 18 relatives had come to Ankara to join the peace-themed demonstration and that the 18 did not know Ankara well.

"I was about five minutes late. The explosion occurred as soon as I got off the bus and took a couple of steps. Most of my relatives were there so I rushed to flames and encountered two cousins of mine whom I told over the phone to where they should go. That was terrible. I can't find any word to describe how I felt" Ünal said.

"I have a seven-year-old son. I take him with me, in general, when I go to a demonstration. I didn't tell him to come with me on Saturday [Oct. 10] because I was a bit late" she added.

"I was gonna show them the city [Ankara] that they had not seen yet" Ünal said. "Now I'm sending their dead bodies [to Siirt]."

Ünal's 15 relatives who were identified in the forensic medical institute were Aycan Kaya, Azize Onat, Vaddettin Kümek, Selim Öz, Dijle Deli, Vedat Erkan, Ahmet Kotolon, Rıdvan Akgül, Fatma Eren, Tefik Dalgıç, Sevim Şilik, Abdullah Erol, Nurullah Erdoğan, Emrullah Erdoğan and Abdülbari Şenci.

The three others whose identification is reported to be ongoing are Filiz Batur, Bedriye Batur and Hasan Baykara.

"Each of those who lost their lives [in the Ankara bombing] is Dijle for me" said Faik Deli, the father of 17-year-old Dijle Deli, one of Ünal's 18 relatives killed in the bombing.Hülya Ünal, 26, a woman who lost 18 of her relatives in the twin blasts of Oct. 10 ahead of a peaceful demonstration in the Turkish capital, said she had seen the funerals of 15 relatives killed in the Ankara bombing since Oct. 10, speaking to daily Hürriyet while waiting outside the Forensic Medical Institute to receive news of three other relatives.

(Photo) - Ankara