Families react to social media posts after crash that killed three friends: 'Everyone and anyone has been commenting'

Gamze Saklı and her friends Nilay Bilgin and Selinay Saral, who lost their lives in a crash that occurred on the night of Tuesday, 23 June, in the Çayeli district of Rize, had been laid to rest. As the reverberations of the accident continued, the grieving families spoke out against posts being made on social media. 

Fethi Bilgin, a cousin of Nilay Bilgin, who made a statement on the matter, said that footage shared from the crash scene on social media and the relentless stream of comments were causing the families even greater pain.

Fethi Bilgin, who was in the car on the night of the incident, noted that the four female friends had been sitting in the park located in the coastal area of the Çayeli district before the crash, and said: "Four friends were sitting in the coastal area known as Çayeli Park. They left from there and had the accident while heading in the direction of Rize. There were comments on social media, there were false and misleading statements. These are a grave situation. Should the families of three people who have lost their children be focused on their grief, or on the comments being made? Someone with nothing better to do goes to the scene of the accident, films a video, and then posts it on social media as if they've done something great. The comments are very distressing and upsetting. Everyone and anyone, whether they know anything or not, has been making all sorts of comments. These people have mothers and fathers, they have families, they have loved ones."

Bilgin also said that before collecting the bodies from the Forensic Medicine Institute, he received an audio recording on his mobile phone purportedly of a conversation between police officers, but that it turned out to be false. He said: "We hadn't even been able to collect our deceased yet and an audio recording drops on my phone. They send it around as if it were a conversation between police officers. I tried to keep a level head and went to the police station to have them listen to the recording. I said, 'If this is a conversation between you, that is a grave situation. How can a conversation between you be spreading around? But if it doesn't belong to you, then a citizen passing by made this recording and is showing off to their friends. That is also a situation that needs to be questioned separately as a social matter.' And indeed it turned out not to be police. Someone passing by made an audio recording and was describing the moment of the accident to their friends. That recording is now circulating out there."