JINHA

ŞIRNEX - After the Turkish state refused to allow the bodies of fallen Kurdish fighters to enter Turkey for 10 days, the bodies have now been surrendered to their families.

For 10 days, the bodies of 13 HPG, YPG and YPJ fighters who lost their lives fighting Daesh in Rojava and Shengal were refused entry to their native Turkey. Their families and local people maintained a vigil since July 26. The order to detain the bodies at the Habur Border Gate had come from the Turkish cabinet.

"What state can forbid the right to bury the dead, the right for the person to be one with the earth? What state can be so low as to steal the right of the dead to peace, of those left behind to mourn?" said Gülsüm Ağaoğlu, of the Women's Freedom Assembly. The assembly made a statement yesterday evening announcing that they and other women's and civil society groups would be heading to the border if the bodies were not surrendered. Gülsüm remarked that since Antigone, women have been the ones fighting state authority to bury their dead.

"The world will never forget these women who fight for the right to burial. And as for those who take this right away, the world will curse them," said Gülsüm.

Last night, the vigil to return the bodies to their families was finally successful. The bodies will now be sent to their native provinces for burial. Meanwhile, body of German YPG fighter Kevin Jochim (Dilsoz Bahar) was brought to Hewler, in the Federal Kurdistan Region, to be flown to Germany.

(ma/fk/cm)