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A state funeral was held in Ankara after the bodies of 20 Turkish soldiers killed in the C-130 military cargo aircraft crash near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border were subjected to forensic procedures and later transferred to Ankara early Friday.
The aircraft had taken off from Azerbaijan and was returning to Türkiye when it crashed shortly after entering Georgian airspace on Tuesday. All personnel on board died when the plane went down. Following the incident, the remains were brought to the Ankara Forensic Medicine Institute, where identification and examinations continued through the night.
After the final procedures were completed, the soldiers’ flag-draped coffins were loaded into military vehicles and transported in a convoy to Mürted Air Base Command, where a high-level state funeral was held with the participation of senior officials, military commanders and families of the fallen.
Authorities said three soldiers will be buried in Ankara following the ceremony, while the remaining 17 will be sent to their hometowns across Türkiye, including Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Sakarya, Balıkesir, Niğde and Eskişehir, for burial with full military honors.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Chief of General Staff Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, Navy Commander Adm. Ercüment Tatlıoğlu, Ankara Governor Vasip Şahin, and other senior military officials attended the funeral ceremony.
Military officials, political leaders and several states across the world, such as Qatar, Azerbaijan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Italy, Romania, Kosovo, Pakistan and most recently Greece, as well as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, offered their condolences, expressing solidarity with Ankara following the tragic loss.
