JINHA

AMED – As Turkish state forces continue to besiege and attack neighborhoods and cities across Kurdistan, diverse groups of Diyarbakır residents are maintaining protest vigils in the city’s Sümerpark.

For 62 days, Turkish state forces have maintained total martial law in the historic Sur district of the city of Diyarbakır. As state forces refuse to allow families to retrieve the dead bodies of loved ones slain in the attacks, the grieving families are now in the 16th day of a sit-in to retrieve the dead bodies. The families of five individuals slain in Sur are maintaining their vigil to retrieve the dead bodies, some now in the 33rd day of waiting for the ability to bury their loved ones.

Makbule Girçek, mother of Turgay Girçek, killed in Sur, called for the blockade on the district to be lifted immediately.

“My son’s body has been in Sur for 16 days,” said Makbule. “So we’ve been at this action for 16 days. Bodies need to be under the ground, not out in the street. We can’t handle this any longer; we want the body.”

For 11 days ago, other Diyarbakır residents have been maintaining a vigil in the park called by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP).

The Democratic Islamic Congress, now in the third day of a resistance fast in protest of the massacres in Kurdistan, is also maintaining their action in the park.

(ny-ea/gc/cm)