JINHA

AMED – After Turkish state forces killed İsa Oran and Mesut Seviktek, they prevented the families from retrieving the young men’s bodies for 28 days. Thousands attended a funeral ceremony in Diyarbakır today for İsa and Mesut, who were buried side by side.

The total martial law and blockade of Diyarbakır’s Sur district is now in its 52nd day. On December 23, Turkish state forces killed İsa Oran and Mesut Seviktek in the Sur district. When state forces refused to allow their families access to the area to retrieve their dead bodies, the families began a hunger strike. After 18 days, they successfully forced Turkish state authorities to turn over the bodies.

Hundreds of vehicles formed a convoy to accompany İsa and Mesut’s bodies to the Yenişehir ceremony. A crowd of thousands, including parliamentary representatives for Diyarbakır, were among those present for the funeral, at which the crowd chanted slogans and bore the bodies on their shoulders to the grave site. The two young men were buried side by side. After the burial, the crowd sang the Rojava revolutionary march “Çerxa Şoreşe.”

“We’re living in a moment that the state is scared even of our dead bodies,” said Ayşe Dicle, co-chair of the MEYA-DER association to aid the families of those killed in war. She promised that Turkey’s President Erdoğan would drown in the tears of the mothers of those slain in the state attacks.

İsa Oran’s father Mehmet Oran, speaking at the ceremony, said that the youth currently resisting against the government’s tanks and artillery would be the ones to bring freedom.

(tt-ea/gc/cm)