Turkish press review

“We have buried them in our hearts,” read a Türkiye daily headline for a report on a funeral ceremony held on Tuesday for 12 Turkish soldiers who were killed in a helicopter crash in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Top state officials, including President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, attended the ceremony at the Peace Force Command in Ankara.

Turkish police launched an operation in eight separate Turkish cities against a group of hackers who call themselves the Red Hackers. Sixteen individuals were detained for hacking the Ankara Police Department's website, the Vatan daily reported. Seven of the suspects are now under arrest.

“Time bomb for Nevruz,” the Zaman daily said while reporting on clashes between security forces and demonstrators in the southeastern towns of Yüksekova and Cizre during celebrations for Nevruz. Nevruz is a spring festival that heralds the vernal equinox, which occurred in the morning hours of March 20 this year. Five police officers were wounded in the incidents. And in the eastern province of Van, police found two kilograms of C4 plastic explosive with a timed detonator. Lawmaker Ahmet Türk was injured by a teargas ganister thrown by police during celebrations in the southeastern province of Batman.