Funeral of Aysel Doğan: Police attack mourners with tear gas and water cannon

The body of Kurdish politician Aysel Doğan, who died recently in Cologne, has arrived in Dersim. Turkish police blocked the mourners' way to the Kurdish woman's birthplace and used water cannons and tear gas.

Kurdish politician Aysel Doğan, who died a few days ago in a Cologne clinic after suffering from cancer for many years, is to be buried today in her native town of Dersim. However, the mourners are blocked from entering her parents' home. Turkish police are refusing to allow the convoy with the hearse to enter the city center, where Doğan's birthplace is located. Instead, the authorities are pushing for an immediate burial in the city cemetery - thus suppressing a burial according to Alevi rites. The police drove up with water cannons and fired tear gas at the mourners. In protest, the mourners have initiated a sit-in on the road to Turişmek, and hundreds of people are demanding to be let through. The situation is tense.

The convoy carrying the body of Aysel Doğan set off from the airport in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) in the morning. The coffin was received by a large number of people, including DBP co-chair Saliha Aydeniz, HDP co-spokesperson Ebru Günay and activists from the Kurdish women's movement TJA. Police forbade the women from escorting Doğan's coffin to the hearse on their shoulders. The dead woman was sent off to Dersim with the slogan "Şehîd namirin" (Martyrs are immortal).

The body was received by Doğan's relatives and numerous mourners on the Seyidli Bridge in Mazgirt district, southeast of central Dersim. Along a route of about twenty kilometers, Turkish police and gendarmerie stopped the convoy several times and harassed the mourners. Several people have been lightly injured by the firing of tear gas and from water cannons. Among the protesters is the HDP deputy Alican Önlü.