Hamit İlbaş, father of 7, joined the ranks of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in 1985 and fell a martyr in a clash with the Turkish army in Cizre district of Şırnak on 3 February 1994. The fallen guerrilla fighter was buried in the foothills of Mount Cizre by his companions at the time.

Two years ago, the İlbaş family applied to the prosecutor’s office to retrieve the remains from the scene, as per the account of a witness. After a long legal process, the remains of İlbaş were reached by his family and buried in the Mem û Zîn Cemetery in Cizre today.

Speaking about the procedures, an uncle of İlbaş, Abdurrahim İlbaş, said: “The court asked for a DNA test and finally granted permission. A body was discovered in the area where we dug to find his remains but the DNA did not match. There were some other graves there. We eventually found his remains and the DNA matched. This morning, his family retrieved the body by their own means, while the Cizre Municipality provided no assistance in the process.”