The Turkish military has admitted that Sefter Taş, 21, one of two Turkish soldiers who had been burned to death by Islamic State jihadists after being taken the hostage in 2015, was killed in Syria, his family said according to the reports.
Speaking to Birgün daily, father Aydın Taş said, "They came to express their condolences, a funeral prayer was performed. They gave us a martyrdom document; other than these, they did not make any explanation." But father Taş told Journo, a news portal, that commanders from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) confirmed the footage which released by the Islamic State group in December 2016 purportedly showing the two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive.
Sefter Taş's family had been inquiring about the situation of his abduction by Islamic State for a long time. The family had appealed to many state institutions, but could not get any results. Taş’s father filed missing person report in Iğdır province to find out if his son was still alive. Immediately after the lawsuit, Turkish army admitted the death of the soldier.
The father Aydın Taş reproached about commanders' late comfirmation of his son's death, adding, "the state will begin an investigation to find the mortal remains. They informed us that if they manage to find them, the mortal remains will be delivered to us. They will erect a monument for now."
The 19-minute video released by the Islamic State, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, had been posted on jihadist websites. Turkish AKP government restricted access to soL News and social media after the video released. Before being burned, the two victims Fethi Şahin, born in Konya in central Turkey and Sefter Taş serving in Kilis in the southeast.
Speaking in Turkish, the killer of the two men calls for "destruction to be sowed" in Turkey.
The Turkish Islamic State member, Hasan Aydın, who was filmed burning two Turkish soldiers alive in Syria was reportedly imprisoned in Turkey in 2012 and 2015. Turkish government had released the IS member - as frequently happens in similar cases.
Turkish AKP government has been one of the largest supporters of terrorist fighting Syrian forces during the past six-and-a-half-year war.
In 2015, Islamic State had reportedly asked the release of 200 Islamic State members detained in Turkey from the delegation of Turkey’s intelligence agency MİT in a negotiation for the release of the Turkish soldiers. However, MİT had not accepted the exchange offer for this time.
