JINHA

AMED - Kurdish women's movement activists protested the government's refusal to investigate a femicide as they buried the body of an unknown woman in the city of Diyarbakır.

On July 31, a woman's dead body was found in a village on the outskirts of the city of Diyarbakır, Turkey in Northern Kurdistan. The woman, between the ages of 30 and 35, had been shot in the head and abandoned in the village of Alibardak, just outside the city of Diyarbakır.

When no one identified or claimed the body, women's groups applied to the state prosecutor about the killing. It was only yesterday, 18 days after the body was found, that the women received permission to bury the body. The prosecutor has still not taken any action to investigate the killing or identify the body.

Yesterday, women's groups held a funeral to honor the unknown woman. Local co-mayors and Parliamentary representatives for the province were among the activists at the funeral, where women chanted slogans denouncing the state, including "men kill, the state protects them."

"The state is protecting the red-handed killers of women," said activist Medine Ölçer, speaking at the funeral. She denounced the Turkish state and the temporary AKP government's commitment to protecting "the family" rather than the lives of women.

(bc-ny/fk/cm)