A police officer in the Ankara Gölbaşı Special Operations Department, Mustafa Serin had worked in terror regions for many years and had been the target of bullets many times in his career. Mustafa’s father was a retired Noncommissioned Officer. His daughter Ela was receiving treatment for leukemia. Serin was martyred during the bombing of the Special Operations Headquarters on July 15th and was buried on his birthday, July 20th.
Originally from Balıkesir, Mustafa had always wanted to be a police officer or a soldier. He finished police school in Diyarbakır, and his first job was in Bursa. He also worked in Şırnak, Urfa and Iraq. He faced death many times in his career. Serin always dreamed of being a martyr, he was a sniper in the Southeast and bullets were removed from his vest many times.
He was buried on his birthday
After a phone call he received, Mustafa ran to his work telling his wife about the coup attempt. He was able to talk to his wife only two times on the way. Zeynep called her husband at 11:10 PM and learned that he was fine. She stated that her husband called her again at 11:54 and added, “He called me. He sounded fine. He didn’t want me to know about the first attack. He told me to lock the doors. I called him later but I couldn’t reach him. I didn’t want to even think about the possibility of this happening.”
According to Zeynep, everybody around her knew that her husband was martyred but they didn’t tell her. She was barely able to stand with sedatives. She stated that they were planning a holiday to Burhaniye on Monday, July 18th; and instead they took her husband’s body to Burhaniye on that day and buried him on July 20th, his 47th birthday.
His daughter with leukemia still expects to hear from her father.
Mustafa had two daughters had two daughters from his first marriage, ages 10 and 17. His 10 year old daughter suffers from leukemia. “His daughter is 10 years old and she has leukemia. Her treatment will end in a year. Her parents were taking care of her treatment. His father usually brought medicine for her. I can’t describe their relationship. His love for his daughter was like no other. I have never seen such love between a father and his daughter. Unfortunately, putschists broke them up. He worked in the day and took care of his daughter in the evening.” said Mustafa’s friend Nuri Önal. “Ela did nothing to deserve to lose her father. Putschists separated Mustafa with her daughter who has leukemia. Ela does not know about any of this. She is texting his father, ‘Where are you?’ now. We told her that her father is out of town working. We told her he will be back. It’s like she feels it. She is not eating anything. She keeps asking about her father. Because this is the first time in her life that her father has not called her for 5 days in a row. This is difficult.