Police detained nine suspects yesterday after last week's attack by the PKK terrorist group in the eastern Batman province. Aybüke Yalçın, a 22-year-old music teacher, and a soldier were killed on Friday in two separate attacks by the same terrorists in the Kozluk district.
Yalçın, who became a symbol of outrage against the PKK, was highly praised after posting on social media how delighted she was for being appointed to a region which has long been synonymous with terror attacks.
The suspects in Friday's attack had first fired upon the car of a local mayor, which was occupied by a relative of mayor at the time of the attack. Yalçın was traveling with her colleagues in a car passing by the scene when stray bullets hit her. While fleeing the scene, the terrorists stopped at a military checkpoint and one detonated explosives on the spot, killing himself and a soldier, while other terrorist fled the scene.
Authorities said the nine suspects included a taxi driver who claimed his car was seized by the terrorist group to be used in the attack.
Yalçın graduated from Nevşehir University's Faculty of Fine Arts last year. Social media users shared images of the young teacher's Facebook post, celebrating her appointment in October to a public school in Batman, her first position.
A video on Yalçın's Facebook page showing her singing a Turkish folk song had also gone viral.
Mahmut Işık, the manager of Kozluk Multi-Program High School where Yalçın was working, told reporters that the music classroom of the high school will be named after the young teacher, who was buying music instruments for the classroom with her own salary.
The PKK has killed hundreds since it ended the unilateral truce in 2015 and resumed its campaign of violence that has killed thousands since the 1980s. The southeastern and eastern regions of Turkey have particularly suffered from PKK attacks, and along with military and police officers, a large number of civil servants and civilians have been killed in the assaults, car bombings and roadside bombs.