On Saturday, Türkiye will commemorate the people who lost their lives during the failed coup attempt seven years ago.
During the treacherous coup attempt of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) orchestrated on July 15, 2016, among the 251 martyrs were the brave women and police officers who fell as martyrs while protecting their homeland. Years on, they are remembered as the frontline heroes in the struggle for democracy.
While many of the women who took cover against junta soldiers in the coup attempt became veterans, 11 of them were martyred.
Police officers Zeynep Sağır, Seher Yaşar, Sevda Güngör, Kübra Doğanay, Demet Sezen, Cennet Yiğit and Gülşah Güler were martyred in front of the Special Operations Department in the Gölbaşı district of Ankara, one of the places, where attacks by coup plotters, was concentrated.
Martyr Yıldız Gürsoy died in front of General Staff headquarters whereas Ayşe Aykaç and Sevgi Yeşilyurt were martyred on the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, then referred to as Bosphorus Bridge, the location which was blocked by a number of putschist troops on the night of the coup. Another patriot, Türkan Türkmen Tekin fall as a martyr in the Esenler district of Istanbul.
Anadolu Agency (AA) compiled the experiences of women who wrote epics about their struggle as grandchildren of heroic women in the War of Independence, on the evening of July 15.
A housewife, 44-year-old Ayşe Aykaç was martyred on July 15 Martyrs Bridge where she went upon President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call to "emerge." On the night of the coup, speaking to private broadcaster CNN Türk, at 12.24 a.m., President Erdoğan delivered a historic speech changing the course of the coup attempt, calling on the Turkish people to take to the streets in order to stop the putschists.
Aykaç, who was at the forefront of those marching to the bridge, lost her life as a result of firing by FETÖ-affiliated soldiers on citizens at the entrance to the bridge. Aykaç, who embraced martyrdom on the bridge after bidding farewell to her family, was the mother of four children.
Also, 51-year-old Sevgi Yeşilyurt, a mother of two was martyred as a result of firing by putschists on the July 15 Martyrs' Bridge.
Türkan Türkmen Tekin, 52, a mother of three children, hailing from Malatya, was wounded by a tank used by the junta in Esenler while on her way toward Atatürk Airport, which FETÖ members wanted to occupy. Housewife Tekin was martyred in the hospital she was taken to.
Kübra Doğanay and Cennet Yiğit were martyred in Police Special Operations Department in an attack orchestrated by putschists on a road they had been walking on together since high school.
Doğanay and Yiğit, who had been classmates at Feyziye-Memduh Güpgüpoğlu Fine Arts High School in central Kayseri, were enrolled at the Painting Teaching Department of Gazi University.
After completing their university education, the two friends, who took police examinations, completed the rigorous training and joined the special forces. The new cops, who had been walking the road together were martyred at a young age during a coup attempt attack.
Cennet Yiğit, 23, was one of the youngest victims of the coup plotters. She was a deputy inspector at the Special Operations Department in Gölbaşı, Ankara when coup plotters bombed the office building. When she was killed, it had been just 10 months since she began her childhood dream of becoming a police officer.
The 23-year-old Doğanay had been a police officer for only 8 months. She had arrived in the capital after participating in operations against the PKK in Diyarbakır's Sur district.
Another courageous Turkish woman, 24-year-old Gülşah Güler, who served as a deputy commissioner in the Special Operations Directorate, was martyred in the coup attempt and buried in her hometown of Hatay.
In October 2016, two-and-half months after the attempted coup, July 15 was designated as Democracy and National Unity Day, with events held nationwide every year since then to commemorate those who lost their lives while beating back putschists and to remember the valor of the nation.
