Kurdish politician and former MP Ibrahim Ayhan had lost his life following a heart attack he suffered in Hewler. Thousands of people including Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Presidential Council Members, HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli, occupied Mardin Metropolitan Municipality’s Co-mayor Ahmet Turk, Agri Co-mayor Sirri Sakik, MPs, Peace Mothers, TJA (Free Women’s Movement) members, HDP Urfa, Mardin, Sirnak, Amed, Mersin, Adana, Adiyaman and Antep district and province administrators, NGO representatives, musician Ferhat Tunc and thousands of people went to the Siverek Public Hospital Morgue to receive Ayhan’s body and set out for the house Ayhan was born in.

“ERDOGAN I WILL HOLD YOU TO ACCOUNT”

Ibrahim Ayhan’s wife Rezan Ayhan voiced her feelings in front of the hospital and said: “People can’t have dinner in their homes, they can’t step outside the door. What kind of a Prime Minister is there, what kind of a President? My husband never picked up guns. They say he made ‘terrorist propaganda’. What terrorism? What was it he did that you started a fire, you attempted to burn him alive? Enough is enough. My husband didn’t flee to those lands, he went to tell the whole world everything. He was a deep man, he was interested in books and philosophy. He loved everybody. What is our crime? Is it that we hold Turkish passports? Is it that we were born on these lands? My husband only wanted peace.”

Ayhan’s mother Zekiye Ayhan said: “Erdogan, I will hold you to account! Erdogan, may your heart burn like mine does! I will stand tall today. Today my hands will be in the air for Ibrahim. My son is gone because of Erdogan’s tyranny. My son never ate any haram, he lived with his honor and dignity. He grew tired, his heart couldn’t take it.”

A convoy of hundreds of cars accompanied the body from the central Siverek market to the family home.

POLICE OBSTACLE IGNORED

People of Siverek saluted their countrymen with applause and victory signs as the convoy passed through the market and the streets, and many district residents joined the convoy. The crowd grew bigger as the convoy approached a thousand cars.

Hundreds of policemen and soldiers accompanied the funeral convoy and plain clothes policemen were positioned along the route. The police attempted to push the people saluting the crowd with victory signs away but residents of Siverek ignored the obstacle. Originally the convoy was to visit the family home first, but the police directed the convoy to the Nato Cemetery due to the huge crowd.

The crowd, tens of thousands of people strong, left the vehicles 200 meters from the cemetery. They received Ayhan’s coffin wrapped in an HDP flag and changed the flag to red, green and yellow banners. The crowd started to march as the coffin was carried on their shoulders, chanting “Shehid namirin” (Martyrs are immortal) and “Biji Serok Apo” (Long Live Leader Öcalan). The police issued threats through the loudspeakers, and attacked the crowd with shields near the cemetery.

The tens of thousands of people in the funeral convoy overcame the barricade the police put up by the cemetery and entered. The police recorded the crowd with drones as they carried the body to the mosque in the cemetery. Ayhan was laid to rest with prayers from the mosque.