CORUM, Turkey

Food packages loaded onto trucks named after humanitarian activists killed on the Mavi Marmara ship in 2010, were distributed to Syrians on Sunday. 

A branch of Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) in Corum, in Turkey's Black Sea region, has been sending aid to Syria since the beginning of the crisis. The aid was also provided by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association. 

“Fifteen trucks, named by the Mavi Marmara martyrs’ names, delivered a hundred tons of food packages to Syrian civil war victims,” said IHH's Corum representative Selim Ozkabakci.

Ozkabakci said the NGO’s goal for 2014 is to send nine humanitarian aid trucks to Syria with the names of the nine people who lost their lives on Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Israeli commandos killed eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin in international waters when they attacked the Mavi Marmara, a ship in a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials to the Gaza Strip, which is under an Israeli blockade.

"Today’s trucks were named in honor of Furkan Dogan, Cevdet Kiliclar, Necdet Yildirim and Fahri Yaldiz,” said Ozkabakci.

In the upcoming days aid will be delivered by trucks named after the other five killed on the Mavi Marmara: Ibrahim Bilgen, Ali Haydar Bengi, Cetin Topcuoglu, Cengiz Songur and Cengiz Akyuz.

englishnews@aa.com.tr