İSTANBUL - Cabbar Koç, brother of one of the burrieds, whose deceased body was found to under the pavements of Kilyos in İstanbul described the pavement graveyard as "the pleace where the cruelty hits the top".

 

In the cities of the Kurdish regions, the attacks targeting the deceased bodies and the graves continue without slowing down. With the new wave of attacks, accelerated after 2017, many deceased bodies were taken out from their graves without the consent of the families and they were buried in cemetery of the nameless. A very striking instance of that happened in the Garzan Cemetery, in village called Yukarı Ölek ('Oleka jor' in Kurdish), located in Tatvan district of  Bitlis. During the curfews on December 19, 2017 the cemetery was bombed and the tombs were destroyed. 

 

THE DECEASED BODIES ARE NOT GIVEN BACK

 

Right after the bombing, the cemeteries were opened and the deceased bodies liying in them were kidnapped, with no notice given to the families. Families have been chasing the deceased bodies of their loved one since then. As a result of the pressure of the families and the public campaing, Governorship of Bitlis had to announce that the deceased bodies had been taken to the Forensic Medicine Institution of İstanbul. The Governship also confessed that a total number of 268 deceased bodies had been kidnapped. So the families gave their blood samples to identify the bodies of their loved ones.

 

BURIED UNDER THE PAVEMENTS

 

Later on, it was announced that the deceased bodies, who had been kept awaiting for s long time in the Forensic Medicine İnstitute of İstanbul were buried in the cemetery of the nameless located in the İstanbul Kilyos Cemetery. However, it was revealed that the deceased bodies were actually buried under the pavements of the cemetery.  As the pavement was digged, the deceased bodies, who were buried one on top of one another as a pile, were found. Yet, a total number of 261 deceased bodies wait to be handed back to their families.

 

STORY OF ABDULRAHİM KOÇ

 

One of the deceased bodies becoming the subject of this striking scandal belongs to Abdulrahim Koç from PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Koç, loses his life in an armed conflict in Bitlis' Tatvan district in 1994. The villagers, who found his deceased body buries him with their own efforts. Koç family, who could not heard the whereabouts of Abdulrahim hears about his death and they go to the region where he lost his life and was buried. As they meant to see the deceased body, the harsh conditions of the armed conflict in the regions does not allow them.

 

As the dialogue process, called "solution process" in Turkey begins, the deceased body of Abdulrahim is taken out by his family and friends do be buried properly in the Garzan cemetery. This becomes the first time Garzan family has a place to visit their son Abdulrahim, when they visit his grave in Garzan Cemetery in 2015.

 

Abdulrahim's brother Cabbar Koç shared his feelings regarding the first time they visited his brother's grave as he said that it was like rejoining with him.

 

AFTER 3 YEARS THE DECEASED BODY WAS KIDNAPPED AGAIN

 

The deceased body of Abdulrahim Koç, which was buried in Garzan Cemetery for 3 years was kidnapped again by the soldiers together with the beginning of the armed conflicts. The kidnapped body was taken to İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institution at first, and then buried under the pavement of the Kilyoz Cemetery. 

 

As Koç family hears about the destruction of Garzan Cemetery, immediately gives their blood sample and demand Abdulrahim's deceased body to be handed back to them.  Three years passes since they apply, and yet they await for a response. Cabbar Koç states that it was devestating for their family to learn that the deceased bodies were found under the pavement in Kilyos Cemetery and this means torture against the deceased bodies.

 

'NO DIFFERENCE WITH HITLER'

 

Stating that the portrait in the Kilyos Cemetery means a shame for the state, Cabbar Koç ended his comments as follows: "We will throw this shame up to their face all the time. that place is definitely not a cemetery, it is a mass grave. A mass grave, where 261 deceased bodies were buried on top of each other. It is impossible for us to forget such a cruelty. This is the point where the words end, no words are capable of eplaining this situation. I can not find the words to describe such a violence. Hitler fascism murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews in gas chambers. Either killing people in gas chambers massively or burying them under the pavements massively, no difference in between. They share the same mentality. To destroy the graves and kidnap the deceased bodies, well this is the pleace where the cruelty hits the top".

 

MA / Erdoğan Alayumat