Nine people were shot dead on May 31 by Israeli soldiers who attacked the Turkish vessel M.V. Mavi Marmara as it attempted to transport humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.
Eight of them were fathers whose children are now due to the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla.
The Arabic word is usually translated as orphan. However, in the Islamic religion, the word actually means a child whose father is dead or whose father and mother are dead. This is the reason why Islamic media outlets are calling the children orphans.
Following are brief biographies of the nine people, as reported by :
1. Ibrahim Bilgen
Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, was an electrical engineer from Siirt. He was a member of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey. He ran as a Saadet (Felicity) Party candidate in the Turkish general election of 2007 and the Siirt mayoral election of 2009. He was married with 6 children.
2. Ali Haydar Bengi
Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, ran a telephone repair shop in Diyarbakir. He was a graduate of Al-Azhar University, Cairo (Department of Arabic Literature). He was married to Saniye Bengi and had four children — Mehunur (15), Semanur (10), and twins Mohammed and Senanur (5).
3. Cevdet Kiliçlar
Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38, was from Kayseri. He was a graduate of Marmara University's Faculty of Communications and formerly a newspaper journalist for the and the . For the past year, he was a reporter and webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). He was married to Derya Kiliçlar, and had one daughter, Gülhan, and one son, Erdem.
4. Cetin Topçuoglu
Cetin Topçuoglu, 54, was from Adana. He was a former amateur soccer player and taekwondo champion who coached Turkey's national taekwondo team. He was married and had one son, Aytek. His wife, Cigdem Topçuoglu, was also aboard the Mavi Marmara, but survived.
5. Necdet Yildirim
Necdet Yildirim, 32, was an IHH aid worker from Malatya. He was married to Refika Yildirim and had one daughter, Melek, aged three.
6. Fahri Yaldiz
Fahri Yaldiz, 43, was a firefighter who worked for the Municipality of Adiyaman. He was married and had four sons.
7. Cengiz Songür
Cengiz Songür, 47, was from Izmir. He was married to Nurcan Songür and had six daughters and one son.
8. Cengiz Akyüz
Cengiz Akyüz, 41, was from Iskenderun. He was married to Nimet Akyüz and had three children — Furkan (14), Beyza (12), and Erva Kardelen (nine).
9. Furkan Dogan
Furkan Dogan, 19, was in his senior year at Kayseri High School, where he was awaiting the results of his university entrance exams. He had hoped to become a doctor and loved chess. He was the son of Dr. Ahmet Dogan, an associate professor at Erciyes University. He was a Turkish-American dual national with two siblings.
The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea early on May 31, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the six ships and injuring about 50 other people.
The fate of three other Freedom Flotilla activists is still unknown.
Israel also arrested nearly 700 activists from 42 countries on board the Freedom Flotilla, which was attempting to break the siege of Gaza in order to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to the long-suffering people of the territory.
Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea. The Israeli troops also put immense psychological pressure on the activists of the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish daily quoted Simsek as saying in an article published on Saturday.
Simsek said they expected some harassment from the Israeli forces but did not expect an armed attack. He went on to say that he witnessed that the person who waived the white flag to surrender was shot by the Israeli troops.
Erol Demir, another activist who was on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, said there is film footage of the chaos and the carnage on the ship and stated that the footage will show the real face of the Israeli military to the entire world.
“They even shot those who surrendered. Many of our friends saw this. They told me that there were handcuffed people who were shot,” he added.
Hakan Albayrak, a journalist from the Turkish daily who was also on the ship, said, “It was an outright massacre what Israel did out there. They attacked us in international waters… We had no weapons. I think we lost more people.”
