The names were given by the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), the main organizer of the flotilla.
All the people killed were men. Eight of them were Turkish nationals, while one was an American of Turkish descent, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.
Not all names have been independently verified.
Three people — Aydin Atac, Celebi Bozan and Osman Kurt — have been reported missing, IHH said on its website.
The names of the dead are:
* Cengiz Akyuz, 41, from Iskenderun, southern Turkey.
* Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, from Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
* Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, an electrical engineer from the southeastern town of Siirt and the father of one son, Anatolian reported.
* Furkan Dogan, 19, was a Turkish-American traveling with a U.S. passport, Anatolian said. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, the agency said.
* Cevdet Kiliclar, 38, a journalist born in the central Turkish town of Kayseri, Anatolian said. He was also employed by the IHH in Istanbul.
* Cengiz Songur, 47, from the Aegean port city of Izmir.
* Cetin Topcuoglu, 54, a former European taekwondo champion who later worked as a coach for Turkey’s national team, an official from the Turkish Taekwondo Federation said. Topcuoglu lived in the southern city of Adana.
* Fahri Yaldiz, 43, a firefighter and father of four from the southern town of Adiyaman, Anatolian reported. His brother Habip told the agency that Fahri had long wanted to die fighting in Israel to become a “martyr.”
* Necdet Yildirim, 32, originally from Malatya, worked for the IHH.
(For more stories on the flotilla, click [nLDE64U0X2]
(Compiled by Ayla Jean Yackley and Ece Toksabay)
Menaka says forensic report on Varun Gandhi’s hate CD ‘one sided’
New Delhi, June 21 (ANI): In the wake of Varun Gandhi’s hate speech CD being declared “not doctored”, his mother and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Maneka Gandhi has termed the forensic report to be a “one sided version.”
“The entire tape was doctored. Nobody has seen the tape. We are talking about voices. The point is that this is a version which is a one sided version. We will answer this and prove it in court. But the entire tape has not proven to be authentic. We have said the words are interchanged. 50 other things have gone wrong there. Now lets see,” Maneka told reporters in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress party spokesman Manish Tewari held the entire BJP responsible for supporting Varun Gandhi’s hate speech, and trying to reap political dividend out of it.
“He has been caught out. And it is not Varun Gandhi who alone is responsible, the responsibility is of the entire BJP, the entire Sangh Parivar that stood by him, they thought that they could reap political dividend out of it. When you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind. This is exactly what has happened in this case,” Tewari said.
Varun had been embroiled in a controversy for making inflammatory comments against Muslims during an election rally in Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh state.
Varun Gandhi, who was arrested in Pilibhit on March 28, on the charges of making inflammatory communal remarks at election meetings in his constituency on March 6, was released from the Etah district Jail in Uttar Pradesh on April 16, after he gave a fresh undertaking that he would not make any inflammatory speeches.
He had been recorded as saying, “If anyone raises a finger towards Hindus or if someone thinks that Hindus are weak and leaderless, if someone thinks that these leaders lick our boots for votes, if anyone raises a finger towards Hindus, then I swear on Gita that I will cut that hand.” (ANI)