A YOUNG bride was left widowed just 15 days after her wedding when her Turkish husband was stabbed to death while trying to break up a bar brawl.

Joanne Cetinkaya, 22, had hoped to start a family life in Darwen with her husband Hakan following their wedding on September 18.

But her dreams were shattered when the 22-year-old was killed outside a Turkish bar on October 3.

Her family have spoken of the youngster's heartache as she struggles to come to terms with life without her husband.

Former Moorland High School pupil Joanne, nee Atkin, met Hakan when she went to Icmeler, in Turkey, in 2005 to find summer work.

The couple kept their relationship going through continuous phone calls and emails after Hakan, originally from the Turkish town of Bursa, was called up to do his compulsory National Service.

He went on to propose in August 2007.

Sainsbury's check-out worker Joanne, of The Sidings, used her wages to pay for regular visits to see her fiance and the pair returned to sunny Icmeler last month for their idyllic wedding ceremony, held on a boat.

After a Turkish honeymoon, Joanne came back to Darwen and was waiting for her furniture maker husband to receive a UK visa, when she learnt of his tragic death.

Joanne's father, Keith Atkin said: "Hakan's family initially rang and said he had been stabbed and taken to hospital. They asked Joanne to pray for him.

"A few hours later she took another call and just broke down into tears.

"We have been told that he had tried to intervene in a fight outside a bar and that he had managed to get a knife off a man.

"But some security guards mistakenly thought he had been causing the trouble. One of them was injured and called his mates over, then Hakan was stabbed four times with a bread knife."

He added: "It is so awful to think that just a few days before they had their whole future in front of them and now it has been snatched away. Joanne is devastated."

Joanne returned to Turkey immediately, accompanied by her mother Kristine, and remains there at Hakan's family home.

Her aunt, Sue Maynard, said: "It was a horrendous 12 hour journey for them to get there but she feels it is where she should be and his family want her there too; they consider her one of their family even though the time she had with Hakan was sadly so brief. It is such a tragedy.

"It is a horrendous thing for her to be going through, especially so soon after they married. They were so happy.

"Joanne told me that she was first noticed Hakan because he was an amazing dancer and he had really jazzy shoes, but he was also a wonderful man and a very bonny lad."

She added: "He came from a big family - he had three sisters and a brother - and everyone has been deeply affected by it. They had made all these plans for when he came over - now they are destroyed.

"This is proof that knife crime is not just a problem in England - it is an international one too."

Mr Atkin said: "Hakan was Joanne's life. Her walls were covered with his photographs. As soon as she got in from work she would be on the internet chatting to him. All that has gone now.

"We want to help her through this as much as possible. It will be hard, because people are still coming up to us and asking how the wedding went - and then we have to tell them the awful news - but we are giving her our love and support and so are Hakan's family."

Three men were initially arrested following the incident in the Cekirge district of Bursa; two men have now been charged in connection with Hakan's death and were due to appear before court today (Monday).