JINHA

ŞIRNEX – Bêkes Tunç, eight days old, entered the world the day his father was killed in Cizre. Bêkes, whose uncle and cousin have also been missing since Turkish state forces massacred Cizre residents in several basements in the town, is now waiting with his family at the temporary morgue where the bodies from Cizre have been taken.

In the border town of Silopi, a temporary forensic medical institute has been set up at the Habur Border Gate to handle the bodies of those slain in massacres in the town of Cizre. The massacres took place when Turkish state forces assaulted several basements in the town where residents, many of them wounded, had taken refuge from the bombing, shelling and assault by state forces. Three of those residents were from the Tunç family: Mehmet, Murat and Orhan.

There has still been no word from Mehmet Tunç, the co-chair of the Cizre People’s Assembly, and his son Murat, who had taken refuge in the basement. However, it has become clear that Mehmet’s brother Orhan has been summarily executed. After lawyers filed an urgent case for Orhan, stating that Turkish state forces were denying him access to an ambulance, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued an interim measure for the wounded man. It has now emerged that Orhan was killed by state forces while wounded.

The Tunç family has come to the temporary forensic medical institute set up at the Habur Border Gate in Silopi in search of the bodies. Because the bodies are unidentifiable, DNA matches are being used to identify the bodies. The Tunç family is staying with their relatives in Silopi while the process continues. Esmer and Ahmet Tunç (the two brothers’ parents) and Güler Tunç (Orhan’s widow) are now in Silopi with Orhan’s eight-day-old son in their arms. The baby bears the name Bêkes—that is, “without anyone.”

Esmer Tunç, speaking with the baby in her arms, explained that Bêkes was born the day his father was assassinated. Esmer decried the AKP government, saying they burned Bêkes’ father alive in the basement. She said that the family set out over and over in an attempt to reach the basements, but that every time they tried to reach their children, the state stopped the family and fined them for “violating the curfew” in Cizre. Esmer said that “we may have violated the curfew, but the AKP violated human rights.

“Erdoğan is my children’s killer,” said Esmer. “Every day I pray to God that no one will take away Bêkes’ rights.”

Esmer stressed that her children were killed in full view of the entire world. She applied to Parliamentary representatives, the ECHR and Turkey’s Constitutional Court for her children, but they were killed nevertheless. Esmer’s son Mehmet had repeatedly called in live to television news stations to report the condition in the basement.

Esmer indicated the baby in her arms.

“This child will grow up. This child will grow up and he will learn how his father and his uncle were killed. And this child will walk in the path of his father and his uncle,” said Esmer. “He will learn their path and follow it.”

Esmer sent her greetings to the guerrillas in the mountains and to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

(ht/gc/cm)