Police officers desecrated the graves of HPG (People’s Defense Forces) and YPG (People’s Defense Units) members in Karşıyaka Cemetery in Van province, Northern Kurdistan.

Policemen defaced the Kurdish names consisting of “x, w, q” letters on tombstones, and wrote the Turkish versions of Kurdish names before desecrating the graves.

The cemetery watchmen stated that 5 policemen drove into the cemetery early in the morning, and cleared the Kurdish names on tombstones. When the watchmen opposed the police, they were replied: “No Kurdish name can be written here. Whoever wants to have Kurdish names on tombstones can go and do it in the Kurdistan that is being founded up there”, and were later expelled from the cemetery.

Name of HPG member Rewan, who died in a clash in Dersim last year, was also wiped and ‘Revan’ was written on the tombstone instead. His father Fadıl Barıştıran strongly condemned the attack on graves and called for public awareness.