In a report about the remains found under the pavement in Kilyos graveyard, the Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD), demanded them to be handed over to the families, and requested that an investigation be open about the illegal burying.
A delegation of the Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD), Istanbul Branch, prepared a report after the disclosure made about 261 bodies of the 282 removed from Garzan Cemetery and buried underground on a sidewalk in Istanbul Kilyos Cemetery.
On 19 December 2017, Garzan Graveyard in Bitlis was destroyed by construction machinery and 282 bodies of guerrillas who had fallen martyrs in clashes, were removed from the graves on various dates.
The families made legal applications to claim the remains of their children but Bitlis Governorate stated that the graves were found empty in a press release on 2 January 2018.
Two years later, the horrific truth was revealed by Mesopotamia Agency which published images of the remains buried under the pavement.
In its report the ÖHD established that the bodies were not buried in the cemetery, but in the area used as a sidewalk.
The ÖHD included the following statements in the report about the visit it carried out in Kilyos: “The officials who sent the bodies taken from Garzan Cemetery to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute and the officials who were responsible for burying the bodies under a foothpath in Istanbul Kilyos Cemetery did so in an unlawful manner incompatible with human dignity. A judicial and administrative investigation should be launched.”
The Lawyers also demanded “the identification procedures of the remains buried below the sidewalk to be completed as soon as possible and demanded the remaisn to be delivered to their families immediately. The families of those people removed from Garzan and buried in an unknown area should receive an apology for the trauma forced upon them for the past 3 years.”
