Menfiyat Elçiçek (Axin Seydo), a guerrilla fighter in the ranks of YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) lost her life in a clash with Turkish troops in the countryside of Şırnak province in northern Kurdistan on 14 September 2018. The body of the fallen fighter was received by her family in a cardboard box in Istanbul yesterday and buried in the İdil district of Şırnak under police siege.

Hundreds of people joined a march in İdil organized by MEBYA-DER, a solidarity organisation for people who have lost relatives in the Kurdish liberation struggle.

HEDEP Şirnak MPs Newroz Uysal Aslan and Mehmet Zeki İrmez also participated in the march which was marked by the slogan "Axîn rûmeta me ye (Axîn is our honour)".

After the march, the MPs and MEBYA-DER executives visited the Elçiçek family at their home where they receive condolence visits.

Speaking here, HEDEP MP Newroz Uysal Aslan defined the state’s approach towards the mortal remains of fallen guerrillas as inhumane, stating: "Doing this, the state has been trying to make our families take a step back for years. Families are not given the bodies of their fallen children for years, or once they are, the remains are given to them in cardboard boxes or sacks. We do not accept these practices against the bodies of the fallen children of this people. This state has been attacking our language, our existence and our identity for years. It does not give up this enmity. But despite their persecution, our families do not give in, and their words give strength to the Kurdish people and the struggle. They will not be able to finish us off by arresting and killing us. They want to destroy us in this way, but they cannot. They will not succeed with this inhuman and immoral policy."