Seventy-five years old mother Sakine Yýldýz and his son Hüsnü Yýldýz went on hunger strike to find Sakine other son and Hüsnü's brother Ali Yýldýz (Müsrel) body. The mother and son have been on hunger strike for 13 days for Ali, who lost his life together with 17 other PKK members during an armed fight with Turkish Military Forces (TSK) in Çemiþkezek, a district of Dersim, on April 1997. The guerrillas were buried in a mass grave in the town.

Mother Yýldýz spoke to DÝHA: “The state thinks that my son does not deserve to be in a normal grave. We have known that there are more than hundred mass graves in Dersim and other cities with a predominantly Kurdish population. It is possible to find a mass grave under any mound of dirt in the region. Now we found comfort for our heart as we have learned where how son is buried but we cannot take his body from the mass grave. I want to pray by my son’s grave before I die. That is why this hunger strike will continue until we take the body.”