JINHA

ŞIRNEX - In the town of Cizre, where hundreds of people were burned alive by state forces, the families of 15-year-old Cengiz Gerem and 18-year-old Kasım Yana still do not know the fate of their children. "From the past to the present, the state has left us to long for our living and our dead," say the families as they try to learn the fates of the teenagers.

Over the course of 68 days of genocidal attacks by Turkish state forces, hundreds were killed and burned to death in the town of Cizre. Families have traveled to morgues set up in towns across the region in an attempt to find and identify the bodies of their children.

Many families have no idea of the fate of their children who were in Cizre during the attacks. The families of Cengiz Gerem (15) and Kasım Yana (18) have not been able to find their sons. The families, left displaced when their homes in Cizre were destroyed, have received no response from any of the institutions they have applied to.

Cengiz' family traveled to the city of Mardin, Kasım's to the temporary forensic medical institute set up at the Habur Border Gate in order to give blood samples in the hopes of finding their children.

Cengiz Gerem was living with his family in the Cudi neighborhood when the attacks began. As the attacks entered their 19th day, the family had to leave, but Cengiz stayed behind, saying, "I won't leave my home and my land." His mother Safiye Gerem last heard from him over a month ago.

"We don't know if he's alive or not. We don't know what they did to my child," said Safiye.

When Cengiz last called, he said he was fine and had just called to hear his family's voices.

"We left; he stayed behind to look after the house," said Safiye. "Now we don't know his fate. We can't reach the living or the dead."

As for Kasım Yana, his family last heard from him when he called from a basement where later, dozens of immolated dead bodies would be pulled from the rubble. Kasım's sister Abide Yana last spoke with him on January 27. Kasım was calling from the Cudi neighborhood. One of his friends had been wounded, then detained in the hospital and locked up there. Another of their wounded friends was missing.

"When he called us, he said he was with his friends and there was an attempt at a massacre against them. They had been trapped in a basement," said Abide. That was the last they heard from Kasım.

Abide said that whether he was dead or alive, the family just wanted to find her brother.

"From the past to the present, the state has left us to long for our living and our dead," said Abide.

(ekip/fk/cm)