Members of the Anatolia Association for Solidarity and Mutual Aid with Families who Lost Loved Ones (ANYAKAYDER) organized a press statement at İstanbul's Şirinevler Square yesterday evening (December 7) to protest against the practice of giving bodies in "cardboard boxes."
According to the news from Mezapotamya Agency, the police first surrounded and then detained those who gathered in the square, initially imposing a blockade and later resorting to physical force.
46 people were detained during the protest which the People's Democratic Congress (HDK), Justice Vigil Mothers, Peace Mothers, Tevgera Jinên Azad (TJA),İstanbul Provincial Co-Chair of the People's Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP) Murat Kalmaz, HEDEP Women's Assembly, Marmara Solidarity and Aid Association for Families of Detainees and Convicts (MATUHAYDER), İstanbul Kurdish Institute, Mesopotamian Cultural Center (MKM), and HEDEP Youth Assembly participated.
Photo: From the Respect for the Dead and Justice Initiative's Disrespect for the Dead and Justice Conference held in Şişli, İstanbul on October 7-8, 2022
So far, some of the bodies delivered to their families in boxes are as follows:
* İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) delivered the remains of Menfiyat Elçiçek, a member of the PKK's women's group YJA-STAR, who lost her life in a conflict in the Kato Marînos region of Hakkari on September 14, 2018, in a cardboard box in December 2023.
* The bones of Yılmaz Uzun, an HPG member who lost his life in an airstrike in Siirt in 2020 along with 5 others, were delivered to his family in a box on September 1, the Peace Day, after 3 years, in September 2023.
* Halise Aksoy had the bones of her son Agit İpek, who lost his life in a conflict in Dersim in 2017, delivered to her in a box on April 10, 2020.
* The bones of Hakan Arslan, who lost his life in the conflicts during the curfew declared on December 2, 2015, in Diyarbakır Sur, were delivered to his father in a bag after 7 years in August 2022.
(EMK/PE)
