site.btaTurkiye's Schools Pay Homage to Soldiers Killed on Friday

All primary and secondary schools in Turkiye are paying homage on Monday to nine Turkish soldiers killed in a clash with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), National Education Minister Yusuf Tekin said on social messaging platform X. 

In a ceremony called Bayrak (flag), students and teachers observe a minute of silence, with flags lowered, to the strains of the national anthem.

Tekin said the aim is to keep alive the memory of the soldiers who were killed on January 12 in the area of Operation Claw-Lock. The ceremony is also intended to educate the younger generations to love their homeland and nation so that they grow up as worthy citizens of Turkiye.

The attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq plunged the Turkish public into grief. Citizens and civil society organizations joined the funeral ceremonies in large numbers, statements condemning terror were issued, and politicians expressed support for the government's counter-terrorism initiatives, which were announced after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday.

Turkish military conducted air strikes in Northern Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the deaths of the nine soldiers in Iraq.