MARDIN - Remembering that Hakan Arslan's bones were released in a sack, and that his son Davut Altınkaynak, who was murdered by JİTEM, was released in a sack, Father Abdulaziz Altınkaynak said: "Nothing changes even after 70 years."

 

The bones of Hakan Arslan, who lost his life in clashes during the curfew declared on December 2, 2015 in Diyarbakır's Sur district, were released to his father Ali Rıza Arslan in a sack the other day, after 7 years. The photos of Arslan, the father who had to wait at the exit of Diyarbakır Courthouse with the bag containing his son's bones, caused condemnations. Attorneys said that the way the bones were released, which were treated as "judicial custody", was against the law.

 

The releasing of the bones in a bag reminded many Kurdish families of what they have been through. Twenty-one years after he was killed by JİTEM in Dargeçit, his bones were released in a sack. 12-year-old Davut Altınkaynak's father, Abdülaziz Altınkaynak pulled his son's bones from the wellhole in 2015. Altınkaynak liad to rest his son's bones, which were released in a sack by the Dargeçit Public Prosecutor's Office in May 2016, in Dargeçit, after the DNA match.

 

THEY TOOK MY SON ALIVE AND RELEASED HIM IN A SACK

 

Reminding that the bones were sent to the prosecutor's office after they were sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK), Father Altınkaynak said: "The bones of my son Davut and 16-year-old Nedim Akyön were sent together. They called because David's bones had arrived. I was working in Iraq and I came from there. They also called Nedim's family on the same day.The state wanted the bones to wait for a while until their bones arrived from the prosecutor's office, they accepted at first, but the prosecutor changed his mind. They had the delivery report signed. They brought two white sacks. Davut Altınkaynak was written on one of them and Nedim Akyön was written on the other. They released the bones in two sacks. They took them alive and released them in a sack."

 

Stating that he had to take the bones to a friend's house and hide them until his relatives came, Altınkaynak said that they did the burial later.

 

DEAD PERSON SHOULD BE RESPECTED

 

Noting that Hakan Arslan's bones were similarly released in a bag to his father, Altınkaynak said: "They released Hakan Arslan to his father in a bag, just as they released Nedim and Davut in a bag. When I saw the photo, I thought of my son's bones. I was bad. This state is already doing it this way so that we are not good. They have to release those bones in the coffin in an Islamic or humane way. But they do not consider us Kurds as human beings. The Turkish state does not even consider us second class. It sees us as third, fourth grade. That's why he's approaching us this way. Their souls were gone, their bones remained. They are disrespecting the Kurds. Regardless of religion, the burial must be respected. Not 7 years, even if 70 years pass, nothing changes. I will not forget as long as I live. If David had not been a Kurd, they would have given the perpetrator a life sentence. But David was Kurdish. They saw the justice they applied for David appropriate for Hakan Arslan as well.”

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal