NEWS CENTER - Penning an article on the approach of the governments so far against the prisons, DTK Co-chair Leyla Güven said: "Those who put your daughters and sons into sacks and boxes will be hold to account before history."
Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-chair Leyla Güven, held in Elazig Women's Closed Prison, wrote an article regarding the government's approach to funerals, after the bones of Hakan Arslan were handed over to her father in a bag 7 years later. Güven's article, published in the "From the pen of the woman" section in Jinnews, is as follows:
"What do the sovereign powers want from the dead since Hallac-ı Mansur, Mani, Hygieia, Sheik Said, Sayid Rıza? Since the existance of the sense of collectivism , or since the establishment of the patriarchal system, there have been wars and conflicts. In the times when there was no law yet, society was governing itself with moral codes. One of the codes of those times and which has continued to this day was the approach to the funeral and to the dead. For example, peple used to give a break to the clashes for the parties to bury their dead in dignity. The war and conflict had a moral code too. Despite hundreds of years have passed since then, and despite there is a moral code in Islam as well as other religions that one should respect the dead, there have been very disrespectful attacks against the funerals and the deads of the Kurds.
FROM 90'S TO OUR DAY
The state channels in the 90's in Turkey showed how the limbs of the Kurdish youth were cut and how the Turkish soldiers took pictures with the severed heads. Later, they started to not release the bodies of the young fighters killed in the conflicts to their families and bury them in the cemetery of the nameless. As we saw in the funeral ceremony of Cemile Çağırga, the people at the ceremony were attacked, the bodies were dropped on the ground during those attacks or like the mother of dear Aysel Tuğluk, bodies had to be exhumed from their graves because of the attacks of the fascist mobs. The gravestones of Kurdish people were shattered with hammers.
Our mothers picked up the bones of their children all mixed up into eachother's and buried them again. Burial grounds of leaders of the Kurdish people like Shiek Said and Said Rıza were kept from the Kurdish people. In short, the approach of this country to the dead of the Kurds have always been brutal.
'I GRIEVED WORTHY OF MY AGİT'
It is 2022. The 21st century. The place is Amed, a Kurdish city. The bones in the sack belongs to a Kurdish young man. The man who is carrying that sack is a Kurdish father, a labourer. He tried so much to find the bones of his son whom he lost 7 years ago. He was buried in the Cemetery of the Nameless without his knowladge. Now, upon the need, they exhumed him and gave his bones to his father Ali Rıza in a sack. This nightmare first started with Xalise. Mother of a young Kurdish man. Someone called her and said she has a cargo and she should go get it. When she went to the Diyarbakır Courthouse, they left a package in front of her. Her knees went week when she found out that there is Agit in that box, her son whom she raised in great poverty and with a lot of effort. She says, despite all these, she got herself together fast and adds: "Those who did this to me want to see me break. I will not let them see me break. I took the box and went home with my head held high. I never showed them my tears. I grieved worthy of my Agit."
'THE COUNTRY OF MOTHERS LOOKING FOR THE BONES OF THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS'
Ali Rıza feels the same way too. He learns that the bones of his son was left waiting in the prosecutor's chambers for 5 days. He was probably still working in that room for those 5 days. He ate, he drank tea, he laughed. Spoke to his family on the phone. He went home and was able to look at his children in the face. Did they lose their human feelings this much? I will not ask that. They were never human at all. It is enough to commemorate Berfo Ana in the person of the Saturday Mothers and Peace Mothers. She did not change her house for 30 years thinking her son might come back. She didn't even paint the house so that her son could recognise the place. She sure knew that her son died. But she was unable to accept this fact as a mother. She wanted to find her bones so there would be a grave she could sit at its side and weep. What kind of a country is this that we have to compare the situations of parents who look for their children to their last breath with the parents who recieve the remains of their children in boxes and sacks.
This society had to face the brutality of Erdoğan and Bahçeli before they were able to got over the brutality of Kenan Evren. We know that these inhumane practices of the Ministry of Interior were tried and failed. He tried the families he sat in front of the HDP building in Amed, it failed. Now he is trying other ways. His aim is to demoralize the Kurdish people and leave them helpless. Whenas, this person knows that Kurdish people hold onto their dead to their last breathe and bid farewell to them with ululations.
The history will write those who did these atrocities. It will also write Ali Rıza and Xalise. It will write those remain silent against these atrocities too!
ENMITY AGAINST KURDS
Let's look back to 30 years ago, not a very long time ago, you will see that those who remained silent in the face of the atrocities done to the Kurds are now suffering a similar fate themselves. We told them this would happen. Yes, we see that some people are raising their voices now. But the attitude of the opposition is embarressing and cowardly. Is it as if they say, "If this is done to the Kurds, they must have done something." After all, the Kurds are nonbelievers, terrorists, seperatists..The only issue the government and the opposition have in common is their enmity against Kurds. Every government follow the steps of the one before it in this subject.
Apparently, neither the government nor the opposition have never got to know the Kurdish people, with whom they have lived together for a thousand years. The sovereigns, who went crazy because they could not defeat the Kurdish people, whose language, culture and identity are denied and who have resisted this denial for years, are in a state of insanity. For this reason, they have used all kinds of illegal methods. How else can one explain sending a body with a cargo package to their parents? Only Turkey and Israel is doing this kind of an atrocity in the world today. They are the examples of the same mentality. The interesting thing is that the world remains silent about what the Kurdish people and Palestinian people are going through for the sake of their own interests.
AN ORGANISED PEOPLE: THE KURDS
Our people have come face to face with all kinds of pain in their legitimate and just struggle. However, these people have turned their pain into power and have acquired a conscious, organised attitude that prioritises universal values. Therefore, the rulers of this country should keep doing the same things and expect different results. Even if they only go on a small journey in their own archives, they will see that there is no method they have not tried against the Kurdish people.
A FUTILE EFFORT
Instead of finding a permanent solution to the Kurdish question, the AKP and MHP government bomb the graves of the Kurds and send their bodies by cargo. It is almost as if he it trying to get results with psychological warfare. It should be noted that these methods are futile efforts. Our people will protect their children under all circumstances. We will always remember our leader, who resisted heroically throughout history, with respect and gratitude, but will you be able to stand up for the torturers and coup plotters who inflict all kinds of pain and oppression on the peoples?
NO EFFORT GOES TO WASTE
Selfless Xalise and Ali Rıza; We will never forgive this cruelty inflicted on you and other mothers and fathers went through what you have gone through! Do your painful hearts good. Those who put your sons and daughters into boxes and sacks will be held to account before history. As the political prisoners, we share your pain with all our hears and bow respectfully before your stance. No effort goes to waste. The freedom of our people is near!"