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Mass grave with remains of 23 people
uncovered in Turkey's Kurdish region 26.1.2012 |
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January
26, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish
region of Turkey, — Turkish authorities found the
remains of 23 people in a mass grave in the Kurdish
region in southeast Turkey [Northern Kurdistan] on
the former site of military police headquarters,
Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.
The first remains were discovered earlier this
month, during an archeological dig in Ickale, in
central Diyarbakir, where ruins of an ancient palace
dating back to the 13th century were being
excavated.
The area had been the site of a military police
headquarters until the early 2000s. The eventual aim
of the excavation is to carry out restoration work
and turn the place into a museum and culture spot.
Human rights activists claim the remains belong to
civilian Kurds killed by security forces during
1990s.
"Skulls and other bones belonging to humans were
found here... According to what we saw they were
piled up in a narrow place... They were apparently
thrown there casually,www.ekurd.net
without any religious ceremony," Agriculture
Minister Mehdi Eker told reporters earlier this
week, after visiting the site.
The Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights
Association (IHD) and 36 families whose relatives
went missing during 1990s filed a criminal complaint
on Wednesday against state officials of the time and
asked for DNA tests for identification.
Around 45,000 people have died since the mid-1980s
when the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
took up arms for a self-ruled homeland in southeast
Turkey.
Remains of 190 bodies have been found in 29
different mass graves in more than 10 provinces in
southeast Turkey, according to IHD's Diyarbakir
branch.
The association estimates that more than 3,000
people are buried in 224 different mass graves in
the region.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
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author or news agency,
AFP | ekurd.net | Agencies
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