ISTANBUL
Turkish police held an emotional funeral service Monday for an officer killed during Sunday’s unrest in Istanbul’s Gazi neighborhood.
Muhammet Fatih Sivri was shot dead while trying to detain a suspect in the neighborhood.
Istanbul’s Chief of Police Selami Altinok said Sivri would be neither the first nor the last martyr in the country:
“I would have preferred to be martyred instead of Sivri,” Altinok said during the funeral service, adding that the authorities would find the perpetrators of the attack.
Many police officers attended the funeral service, along with Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin. Sivri’s body will be laid to rest in Kirikkale, a central province of Turkey.
Sivri died as police came under fire while dispersing a group “belonging to an illegal organization” after they blocked a main street and attacked police officers with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails.
The group, who were wearing uniforms and masks, was dispersed after it took advantage of the funeral ceremony of a woman -- reportedly a member of the outlawed far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) -- who was killed in Bagcilar on Friday, Istanbul Police Department said in a statement on Sunday.
The woman was killed during a shootout with police in a wave of anti-terror operations across the country, which saw over 800 detentions on suspicion of having links to terrorist groups, including Daesh and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
