Body of HPG guerrilla allegedly exhumed from Martyrs’ Cemetery

BEHDINAN | 04-09-2013 | Turkish soldiers attacked the Agit Suruç Martyrs’ Cemetery in Bendere region near Bagok mountain, in Mardin, on Tuesday. Soldiers allegedly exhumed the body of HPG (People’s Defense Forces) guerrilla Ahmet Uğurlar who had been buried in the cemetery on Monday.

Speaking to ANF about the attack on the cemetery, where 43 HPG guerrillas are buried, mayor of Nusaybin Ayşe Gökkan said they ascertained that Turkish soldiers had demolished and attacked the cemetery soon after the funeral ceremony ended and people left the graveyard. Confirming that guerrilla Ahmet Uğurlar’s body has also been exhumed by soldiers, Gökkan said that helicopters were flying over the area when they went back to the cemetery after hearing about the incident.

Gökkan remarked that the attack on the cemetery caused further concerns and tension among the Kurdish people.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş also responded strongly to the attack on the cemetery, saying that; “Nowhere else in the world but in Turkey has attacking cemeteries been approved so much along the human history. The demolition of their children’s graveyard is an adequate reason for people to rise up, no matter what kind of a process is going on”.

Demirtaş urged the government to launch an investigation against those responsible for the demolition of the cemetery, remarking that the government’s steps in this regard would have an influence on the the fate of the onogoing process.

Demirtaş called on members of the BDP and the Kurdish people to display their reaction against the attack on the cemetery which -he said- was a sacred place. Demirtaş added that this case had nothing to do with the ongoing process.

BDP co-chair added that they expected to meet Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan within the next ten days.

In a written statement responding to the atatck on the cemetery of Kurdish guerrillas, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) commented the attack as provocation and called on Kurdish people to protect their cemeteries and to unite around their national values.

The Xerzan Martyrs’ Cemetery where six PKK guerrillas are buried was also attacked and demolished by unidentified persons on 24 August. The cemetery in the village of Olek, in Bitlis province, has been formed recently for six PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) militants who died in 1993.  (ANF)