The curfew declared in Mardin's Nusaybin district on March 14, 2016 that ended recently has left 6 neighborhoods completely destroyed.

Bodies of dozens who fell martyrs during the self-governance resistance are still in the cemetery of the nameless. Even though two years have already passed, the remains of 28 people that were officially identified have still not been given to their families.

After refusing to hand the dead over to their families under the pretext of "having lost their identity information", Mardin public prosecutor’s office is using different subterfuges for the last one month now to withhold the remains from their relatives.

FAMILIES OBSTRUCTED FROM GETTING THEIR CHILDREN'S BODIES

Family members who are going to the public prosecutor’s office to get the bones of their children are sent to Nusaybin under the pretence that "the file is processed in Nusaybin". The families gave their signatures in Nusaybin but were this time sent back to Mardin because "the file has been assigned to Mardin."

According to the information Nusaybin prosecutor’s office gave to the families, "the file was sent to Mardin Public Prosecutor’s Office via the PTT” (official state institution for post, telegraph and telephone services), but when the families headed from Nusaybin to Mardin the prosecutor told them that "the file has not reached them yet". The families are held up and obstructed from retrieving the bones of their children.

48 BODIES STILL MISSING

According to the latest information gathered after two years, out of the 83 people that lost their lives in Nusaybin, bodies of only 35 were retrieved from the cemetery of the nameless and handed over to families. 48 bodies are still in various cities; 6 were buried in Diyarbakır’s Yeniköy Cemetery of the Nameless, 6 in Istanbul, 18 in Mardin and the remaining 18 in Urfa.

BODIES DISCOVERED DURING CONSTRUCTION WORKS

Turkey's Housing Development Administration TOKİ construction started in Nusaybin’s 4 largest neighborhoods after the demolition, but no works have been done in the border neighborhood Zeynel Abidin and the Kışla neighborhood. The state has demolished the buildings left standing and confiscated the people’s homes without an expropriation order, and now they are opening the pillaged areas for profiteering. In Nusaybin, famous for its small shop keepers and organized structure, the AKP-MHP government is building a shopping mall over demolished houses and gifting the people’s property to contractors. After months of demolition efforts, the TOKİ buildings are now growing rapidly.

In Yenişehir and Fırat neighborhoods where also TOKİ construction is underway, two bodies were found and retrieved during the groundbreaking efforts in recent months. The two bodies, one of which belonged to a woman, were later placed by the police in nylon bags and taken away.