MP and Party Leader Yazıcıoğlu Buried

Yesterday (31 March), Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, chair of the Great Union Party (BBP) and MP for the province of Sivas, was buried in Ankara.

A first ceremony at parliament was followed by the funeral prayer at the Kocatepe Mosque in the capital city. Then a ceremony was organised in front of the party headquarters.

Thousands of people participated in the ceremonies. Finally, Yazıcıoğlu was buried at the centre of a religious group.

The ceremonies were attended by, among many others, the deceased’s mother, wife and two children, parliamentary speaker Köksal Toptan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, CHP chair Deniz Baykal, MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli, DTP Şırnak MP Hasip Kaplan, former Felicity Party (SP) chair Recai Kurtan, constitutional court president Haşim Kılıç, other ministers and MPs, former President Süleyman Demirel, 2nd Chief of Staff General Hasan Iğsız, former Prime Ministers Tansu Çiller and Yıldırım Akbulut, and former parliamentary speaker Bülent Arınç.

The party chair had been on a pre-election campaign in Anatolia when the helicopter he was in crashed on 25 March. Three other party members, a journalist and the pilot also died. (TK/AG)