Suppression
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the government of the newly established secular state of Turkey viewed all of its inhabitants as Turks. Widespread discrimination against minorities like the Kurds started. Kurds were referred to as Mountain Turks and the state prohibited the use of the terms Kurd or Kurdish. As of today, Turkey does not recognize Kurds as an ethnic group and does not recognize Kurdish as a language either.
Images that frequently occurred in the 90s
Particularly, the torture inflicted on the bodies of PKK members and civilians who lost their lives in the conflicts in the 1990s, being tied to the back of a panzer and dragged, the beheadings of the dead bodies, and the poses made by stepping on the corpses attracted reactions from the national and international public.
The same practices of the 1990s were recorded in 2015 until now.
Kevser Elturk died in the clash between PKK members and Turkish soldiers on 10 August 2015 in the eastern city of Muş in Turkey.
Kevser Eltürk’s body was displayed naked by the soldiers and her photo was shared in the social media. Kevser Eltürk (Ekin Wan) was undressed, photographed and paraded at the place where she was shot.
No one was ever held accountable – neither soldiers who were at the scene nor the social media services, where the photos were distributed.
October 2, 2015: In Şırnak, where clashes have been taking place since October 1, Hacı Lokman Birlik’s body was tied to the back of a panzer and dragged on the ground to the Police building, a video was taken.
Taybet İnan was shot by snipers in Silopi, where there was a curfew, on December 19, 2015. She remained injured on the ground for hours and died in front of the eyes of her husband and children. Her brother-in-law Yusuf İnan, who tried to take the body, was also shot and killed.
Taybet İnan’s body remained on the ground for 7 days. Everyone who went to pick her up with white flags was shot at and her husband was injured in his arm. Her husband and children were not allowed to attend her funeral. She was quietly buried 23 days later.
Cemeteries destroyed
Attacks on guerrilla funerals are not limited to the 90s. Although the exact number is unknown, more than 6 thousand graves have been destroyed since 2015, and countless attacks have been carried out on hundreds of cemeteries. Some cemeteries were destroyed by construction equipment.
