Bêrîtan Elyakut/JINHA

AMED – For 12 days, the families of four young people slain by the Turkish state in Diyarbakır have been on hunger strike. Their goal is to obtain the bodies of their children, which the state is refusing to allow them to access. After the state retracted an offer to let the families see the bodies yesterday, they have said, “the state deceived us.”

For 43 days, the residents of the Sur district of Diyarbakır have been maintaining a resistance as state attacks continue, killing many in the area, which is under a 24-hour curfew. Young Sur residents Mesut Seviktek and İsa Oran were killed on December 22, Ramazan Öğüt on December 30 and most recently Rozerin Çukur (16) on January 8.

Turkish state forces in Sur have refused to allow the families to retrieve and bury their children’s bodies. As a result, the families have been maintaining a hunger strike for the last 12 days. Yesterday, the provincial governor offered to lift the curfew for two hours to allow the families to retrieve the bodies. When a delegation arrived, state officials had changed their position and claimed that for “security reasons,” the bodies would not be handed over.

Rozerin Çukur’s mother, Fahriye Çukur, said that her daughter (in her last year of high school when she was killed) dreamed of being a psychologist. She said Rozerin was always a sensitive child.

“She wouldn’t even eat chicken. She’d say to us, ‘you have no conscience. How can you bring yourselves to do this to a chicken and eat its meat?’” said Fahriye. “She’d cry for the meat people ate, but the Prime Minister didn’t pity her or these youths.

“What does the state want from us?” asked Fahriye, who said that when the state treated dead bodies this way, it was natural that the people should take up arms. She said that if the state continued treating dead bodies this way, mothers would soon be taking up arms, as well. She called on all mothers to support her and the other mothers on hunger strike.

“The governor said they were giving us permission to get the bodies, and when we heard this we were so happy,” said Fahriye, who said the state’s promise to return the bodies had just been a ploy to draw people into the streets to kill them. “Just think, a mother happy because she can get her child’s dead body. How can this be? It means that humanity has died.”

Zara Baran, the aunt of Ramazan Öğüt, said that, “everyone should be ashamed that a country has been created where mothers feel happy to retrieve the lifeless bodies of their children.

“They torture us just because we’re Kurds. They shoot our children with tanks and mortars, and then they won’t give up the bodies they killed. They must be scared even of our dead bodies. But we’re not scared,” said Zara.

Güler Seviktek, Mesut Seviktek’s older sister, described the moment that they were told they would be able to retrieve the bodies. She said the families laughed and cried at once.

“We got so excited; we felt like we were going to meet our children,” said Güler. “As if they were still alive.” Then the state forced the delegation sent to retrieve the bodies to return empty-handed.

“We will never forget what this occupying state did to us,” said Güler.

(şa/gc/cm)