VAN - ÖHD member Deniz Yıldız said that after the destruction of the Xerzan Cemetery, there were attacks on the graves of HPG members many times in different dates and cities, and that all criminal complaints were inconclusive.

 

More than 300 corpses belonging to HPGs, who were taken out of the Xerzan Cemetery, which was destroyed by construction equipment on December 19, 2017 in Oleka Jor village of Bedlis, were taken to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) on January 2, 2018, with the statement made by the Bitlis Governorate. As a result of the attempts made later, it was learned that the bodies were buried in the parcels reserved for the orphans in Kilyos Cemetery in Istanbul.

 

'GOVERNMENT DID NOT EVEN RESPECT THE DEAD'

 

A lawsuit was filed both in Istanbul and Bedlis regarding the exhumation of the bodies from the Xerzan Cemetery. Upon the applications of the families in Istanbul, the Association of Lawyers for Freedom(ÖHD) Istanbul Branch filed a complaint with the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, while the court gave a decision of non-prosecution. Although the ÖHD Istanbul Branch took the case to the Constitutional Court (AYM), no decision has been made yet. Again, no progress has been made in the time passed regarding the criminal complaints in Bedlis.

 

Lawyer Deniz Yıldız, a member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), who followed the case, said that it is proof that the state no longer even respects the dead, adding that similar practices towards cemeteries have increased after 2015.

 

ILLEGAL

 

Reminding that the cemetery was leveled with buckets on December 19, 2017, Yıldız said: “They destroyed the cemetery with construction equipment without informing the families and without following the procedure. According to the allegations; There were 282 bodies, but ATK said that 261 bodies were removed. For a long time after the bodies were removed, they did not tell us where the bodies were. Families were also not informed during this process. We filed a criminal complaint about the unlawfulness, but the criminal complaints in Bedlis are still pending, we still have not received a response. Despite our frequent requests to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor, we still have not received an answer. There is information that only 23 of 261 bodies have been handed over to their families so far. In other words, the bodies that were supposed to be released to the families were buried in boxes on a 50 square meter pavement. In addition to being against the law, this situation is a practice that does not exist in any religion or sect, and it has been buried in an inhumane way.”