JINHA

AMED – In Diyarbakır, the families who went on an 18-day hunger strike demanding the right to retrieve and bury the bodies of their children slain by police have announced that they are replacing their hunger strike with a vigil.

For 50 days, Turkish state forces have maintained a constant assault on the Sur district of Diyarbakır. When Turkish state forces refused to allow families to access the dead bodies of İsa Oran, Mesut Seviktek, Ramazan Öğüt and Rozerin Çukur, killed in the assaults, the families began a hunger strike demanding the right to bury their children. Yesterday, the bodies of Mesut Seviktek and İra Oran were brought to the morgue and identified by their families.

The families held a press conference at the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) today. The families of Gündüz Akmeşe and Turgut Görçek, recently killed in the ongoing assault on Sur, joined the action.

Ayşe Dicle, co-chair of the association MEYA-DER (which organizes support for the families of those killed in war in Kurdistan), announced that until every single body was returned, the families would continue their action as a vigil.

“We are demanding that the four dead bodies and the wounded, lying on the ground in the Sur district, be immediately surrendered to us and to the families,” said Ayşe.

“How will the state come here tomorrow and look this people in their eyes?” asked Mehmet Oran, father of İsa Oran. “Our people have seen their dirty face now. At this point, the only ones they’re fooling are themselves. We want no one else to be killed; we want these massacres to end.”

Mehmet said the families never believed the state’s claim that the bodies could not be retrieved because of fighting, noting that only yesterday state forces had retrieved their own side’s dead bodies from the area under curfew.

According to reports, the bodies of İsa Oran and Mesut Seviktek are no longer in a recognizable state. The families are awaiting DNA results to confirm the identities before burying them.

(tt-ea/gc/cm)