Yıldız Gürsoy who served tea in a private company, said to her mother as she was leaving the house to fight putschists, “Mom, renounce your rights for me in this. I may not come back,” she was injured by shrapnel pieces from the bombs dropped by traitors in front of the General Staff Headquarters. She died a martyr’s death after the fight for her life had lasted for a week.
She heard of the coup attempt as she was watching TV. She decided to go into the streets upon the call of President Erdoğan. She saw some people gathering to resist putschists and left the house telling her mother, “Mom, I may not come back. Renounce your rights for me in this.”
Her head was pierced after a shrapnel piece from the bomb dropped by putschists, hit her behind her ear. A big crowd also ran over Gürsoy’s body as they were trying to flee the bombs. She was eventually taken to the hospital, severely injured. She was taken to surgery immediately after being transferred to the Ankara Numune Hospital. Unfortunately, she died 6 days later.
A mother of one child, 42 year old Yıldız died on Thursday, July 21st. Her funeral was held in Sarıkaya district of her hometown Sarıkaya.
“I can sacrifice not one Yıldız but thousands of Yıldız’s”
Oktay Yıldırım, her oldest brother, said, “May our country survive,” burying the pain of losing his sister in his heart. He was in the streets on the night of July 15th as well and continued with saying, “I’m proud, I’m happy that my sister is a martyr. We will do anything for our country. We will be martyrs as well if necessary. I can sacrifice not one Yildiz but thousands of Yildiz’s. We won’t let a couple of looters take our country from us. We were all there. We went there to give everything we had. Thank God for letting us have this pride. May our country survive.
Yıldız worked as a tea server in a private company and had divorced her husband 20 years earlier. According to her family, her son, Eray Demir was convicted of 3 years of imprisonment due to an event that occurred between friends. Gürsoy, who was looking forward to the release of her son that was due in 2 years, became one of the heroines of July 15th.
The name Martyr Yıldız Gürsoy was given to an Anatolian imam hatip high school in Edirne and a vocational and technical high school in Yozgat.
