The state siege of dirty war politics against the Kurdish people in Amed’s Sur district has entered day 176, while the families wait to be reunited with their children, whose bodies they were unable to take back from the state.
Today marks the 176th day of the state's dirty war policies against the Kurdish people in Amed’s Sur district. Sur has resisted the state’s total annihilation attacks and has gone down in history with their resistance once again. Sur has a history of 7 thousand years and has seen countless attacks and wars, but has always been a place of resistance. The latest Sur resistance started on August 15, 2015 with the Kurdish people and the youth declaring self government in several places in Kurdistan.
The resistance in Sur continued for months and the state forces started to torture residents by refusing to turn the bodies of people they have killed over to their families. Families unable to receive their children’s bodies have been holding a sit-in in Dicle Fırat Cultural Center for 146 days. Several bodies were identified last week with DNA tests while some families still don’t know where the bodies of their children are. One of the missing bodies belongs to Ramazan Öğüt, the 17 year old boy who was shot in the head by special operations units in Hasırlı neighborhood on January 2.
The mother Elif Öğüt said, “The other families who were in the sit-in with us continue to come here every day to not leave us alone although they have received the bodies of their children,” and that her only wish was to have an end to this torture and reunite with the body of her child.
“THEY SHOT HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET”
The mother said, “We have been in this protest for five months to receive the bodies of our children. Enough is enough, we don’t have the strength to cope anymore. Before they said the curfew was in place and that there were clashes. Now the curfew is lifted, there are no more clashes, but our children are still lost. All families waiting here received their children’s bodies, but the bodies of Ramazan, Rozerin and Hakan still haven’t been returned. Everybody has their child except me. Ramazan was killed on his birthday. He was 17, my son was just a boy. They called him a terrorist and they shot him in the middle of the street. It was winter when he died, now spring has passed and summer has come. The seasons have changed, and I still don’t have my son.”
“My child’s unburied body was left in the rain, snow and sun, the body wasted away in the streets. What they will return to me is an unidentifiable body, and not even that - they will return the bones of our children to us. Even if it’s a handful of dirt that’s left of my boy, I want it. I will take it to a grave and bury it. I will at least know that my son is there and I can return home. This is not something any person with a conscience can do.”
“THEY ARE WASTING OUR TIME BY NOT TESTING THE DNA”
Fahriye Çukur, mother of Rozerin Çukur killed on January 7, said DNA tests were still not conducted on the two bodies that were recovered 17 days ago and continued: “I want the DNA test to be concluded as soon as possible so I can be released from this torment. I want to know if it is my child or not. I watch the streets all day, I don’t want to get my hopes up. I want the body of my daughter to be found, and I want these results to be conclusive. Why are the DNA tests that come out in one day normally taking this long for us? What did we do? We are not enemies to anybody. My daughter was killed there as a civilian.”
“I’M TIRED OF DYING EVERY DAY”
Mother Çukur said they had been waiting for 146 days and still haven’t received the bodies of Ramazan and Rozerin and continued: “I am tired of dying every day. Nobody can understand what I have been going through for months. I suffer occasional attacks, I can’t cope anymore. I just want the DNA results to come for my daughter, I just want to know. Why are they torturing us like this? Ramazan had a platinum piece in his arm, and now one of the bodies they found has platinum in the arm, which was chipped away along with the bones.”
“POLICE FROM THE WEST ARE KILLING 16 YEAR OLD CHILDREN HERE”
Çukur concluded her words with: “I have held my daughter’s photograph for months. I don’t want any other mothers to do the same. I want peace. I call on mothers of the soldiers and police who died here. Why don’t they react like us? Why don’t they ask why their children are dying? Why don’t they ask why they receive a body in return for the son they sent here? The police from the west come and kill our 16 year old children here. It is not easy to kill a person, and they get paid to murder people here. We just want our children.”
