Late Great Union Party chief’s burial tomorrow

The leader of the Great Union Party, or BBP, who died in a helicopter crash last week, will be buried in ankara tomorrow after an official ceremony at Parliament and BBP headquarters and prayers at the Kocatepe Mosque. Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu’s body was brought to ankara on Saturday with three of the four other victims found at the crash site. Helicopter pilot Mustafa Kaya was sent to ıstanbul on Saturday from Kahramanmaraş, CNN Türk news channel reported. Yazıcıoğlu was elected as an independent deputy from the central Anatolian province of Sivas in the 2007 general elections. The helicopter crashed Wednesday in the eastern province of Kahramanmaraş as it was returning from an election rally. Authorities found the crash site and the bodies of five of the six people aboard the helicopter late Friday. The search continued for İhlas news agency reporter İsmail Güneş, who called an emergency hotline after the crash and said he was hurt. The charge of his mobile telephone went out and he has not been contacted since. The wreckage of the helicopter was found by village guards between the towns of Sisne and Elmalı in Kahramanmaraş on the third day of rescue efforts. Initial reports indicated the helicopter was smashed to pieces and spread over an area of about 60 square meters when it was found. The bodies of the four crash victims were brought to ankara in coffins draped in the Turkish flag, with many BBP supporters and dignitaries present at the ankara Esenboğa Airport. Some supporters shouted, "God is great," as Yazıcıoğlu’s coffin was taken to an ambulance. Any possible neglect or negligence connected to the crash and the search and rescue efforts afterward would be investigated in detail, said Prime Minister Recep tayyip erdoğan. Criticism about the fact that it took almost three days for authorities to locate the crash site Ğ and then only by chance Ğ has caused the government to act. Hürriyet daily reported that village guards in the region were just about to return when they happened upon the site when one guard tripped on one of the helicopter’s propeller blades. Erdoğan described the rescue efforts as comprehensive but noted that everyone regretted that those who were travelling in the chopper were not rescued alive. He said the ruling Justice and Development Party, or akp, would submit an application for a parliamentary inquiry to investigate how the rescue efforts could be speeded up in such cases and what precautions need to be taken to prevent such tragedies. Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, speaking in Kahramanmaraş on Saturday, said the search continued for the sixth victim of the crash. He said those who criticized the search efforts should have seen the mountainous region where the crash took place. "We tried our best to prevent a repeat of any further tragedies during the search efforts, which was very successful when one considers the conditions under which they took place," said the interior minister. He said there was fog that prevented the search parties from seeing more than a meter in front of them and that meter-thick snow covered everything. Despite help from the military, the police, Gendarmerie and locals, the weather created an insurmountable obstacle, he said. He also said helicopters from the military, hospitals and the police were kept waiting but could not be used because of the weather.