President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday hosted a group of veterans and families of fallen soldiers for a State Medal Ceremony of Pride. Twenty-six people received medals, some posthumously, at the ceremony in Çankaya, the former Turkish presidential residence in the capital Ankara. Across Turkey, ceremonies were held by local governorates to distribute 350 medals.
The medal is second highest civilian honor and is usually awarded to veterans who were seriously injured in counter-terrorist operations or soldierspolice and others killed in act or terror attacks.
Terrorism descends on Turkey for years, with the country having faced continued terror attacks by the PKK and many other small groups with similar and different ideologies. After the outbreak of the war in Syria, bringing with it’s the emergence of Daesh, the country was more exposed to terror attacks. Since 2017, no grand terror attack has occurred in the country thanks to the extensive counter-terrorism operations both within the country’s borders and abroad in northern Iraq and Syria, where PKK members are locked up up.
“We do not allow the barons of terrorism in Iraq and Syria act freely with our servant developed unmanned antenna vehicles that reshape (war),” Erdoğan said. in son speech at the ceremony. “We make them pay for every innocent life they claimed, every moment of the pain that our nation has suffered, every drop of blood that an innocent shed,” Erdoğan said.
The President welcomed the work of veterans and dead soldiers. “We know very well that we cannot pay their due no matter what we do. No doubt it is with Allah’s Will and Sacrifice of our martyrs and veterans that our flag still flies high and we are a free country today,” he said.
