JINHA

ŞIRNEX – Tens of thousands attended a funeral ceremony for 12 people killed by state forces in the towns of Cizre, Silopi and Şırnak. Kurdish woman politician Sêvê Demir’s mother Sakine Demir, speaking at the funeral, said, “Our children were killed because they did not surrender.”

As the people of the towns of Cizre, Silopi and Şırnak maintain a resistance for the right to self-government, 12 people killed by state forces in the towns were buried in Şırnak’s Naralo Cemetery today with the attendance of a massive crowd. Sêvê Demir, Fatma Uyar, Pakize Nayır, Çetin Taşar, Cebrail Mungan, Murat Ekinci, Ahmet Zırığ and Hakan Şengül were buried in the ceremony, which started hours late due to the blockade on Şırnak.

The governor of Şırnak province shut down all entry and exit out of the city today ahead of the funeral ceremony. The family of slain woman Sêvê Demir and the group of politicians traveling with them were denied entry at a checkpoint, where soldiers told them there were “clear orders from Ankara” against their entering the city. Sêvê’s family only managed to enter hours after the funeral was scheduled to begun.

When the family was able to enter Şırnak, the assembled crowd marched from the morgue at the Şırnak State Hospital (where the bodies have been kept pending burial) to the town’s Naralo Cemetery. The marchers, chanting slogans, marched behind a banner that read, “with our laughter we will silence the tanks; with our seeds we will bloom and bring the spring.”

The ceremony began with the Kurdish national anthem “Ey Reqîb.”

Leyla Birlik, Parliamentary representative for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was among those who spoke at the funeral. She noted that the AKP had come to Kurdistan with tanks and mortars.

“But they should know this: our struggle will continue with Sêvê’s eyes, with Pakize’s heart, with Fatma’s smile. We will raise their struggle. You can see, they even make the decisions about where we will bury our martyrs. But they should know that we will never surrender,” said Leyla.

“Our children were killed because they didn’t surrender,” said Sakine Demir, mother of Sêvê Demir, speaking on behalf of the 12 families. She promised that thousands more Sêvês, Pakizes, and Fatmas were being born from the struggle.

The 12 were buried after the speeches.

(dk-aı/fk/cm)