JINHA

MÊRDÎN – A 12-year-old boy named Muğdat Ay was shot and killed in Nusaybin yesterday evening by Turkish police. Muğdat was buried today to the sound of slogans chanted by his childhood playmates in a ceremony attended by thousands.

Yesterday evening, Turkish state forces blockaded the Dicle neighborhood of the town of Nusaybin, among the neighborhoods home to a resistance in the town. Police opened fire on the neighborhood from armored vehicles, slaying 12-year-old Muğdat Ay as he was playing marbles in the street.

Thousands bade farewell to Muğdat at a funeral today. MPs, town co-mayors and local activists were among those in attendance at a ceremony outside the local funeral home, where attendees carried large posters of Muğdat and flags of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). The ceremony began with a moment of silence.

“The occupying state continues to slay our children before our eyes, inflicting the most horrible of tortures,” said Gülser Yıldırım, HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) MP for the province, in a short speech.

Muğdat’s coffin was then loaded into an ambulance. The crowd accompanied the ambulance to the Hacılar Cemetery. Shutters were closed and black flags were hung from balconies to condemn the 17th anniversary of the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in the town. Citizens left their homes and joined the march to the cemetery, chanting slogans supporting the resistance.

As Muğdat was being buried, his mother and older brother wailed laments at the graveside. Muğdat’s playmates from the neighborhood sang the revolutionary anthem of Rojava as Muğdat’s small body was lowered into the grave. The children chanted “martyrs never die” at the ceremony.

(zd/cm)