The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Committee for Solidarity with the Families of the Martyrs has issued a written statement on the case of Agit Ipek (Nom de Guerre: Kemal Berxwedan). The guerrilla fighter died in May 2017 in a battle with the Turkish military in Dersim. His remains were sent to his parents by the Turkish authorities by post on Friday.

The PKK committee said: "The AKP/MHP government knows no limits in its immoral actions. With its unethical, unscrupulous and fascist measures it wants to destroy all social values and to force society to capitulate. In this way, it believes that it can hold on to power longer.

The PKK statement continued: "The AKP/MHP government wants to spread fear among our people with fascist measures which do not occur in any religious or ethical conviction, by degrading the bodies of liberation fighters.

The body of the freedom fighter Agit Ipek, who died on 23 May 2017 in a battle on the Hill Xelasor in Dersim, has not been handed over to his family despite intensive efforts. However, the family has not given up. A DNA test finally proved that the corpse was of Agit Ipek. According to the normal procedure, the forensic medicine should have informed the parents and handed over the body to them. Instead, the remains were sent by post and handed over to the mother in Amed like an object.

We ask: Is there anyone who knows about a war and a state where such hateful, inhuman and immoral measures are carried out? What legal system provides for such action? It is not just torture of guerrilla corpses; by handing over the bones of their child by post to the mother, torture is perpetrated on the mother, the family, the survivors, our people, Turkish society and the whole of humanity. And as if this procedure, which lacks any ethics, is not enough, the participation in the funeral has been forbidden and the society has been deprived of the right to share the pain with the family and express its condolences. The exercise of religious duties has been prevented by force.

The AKP/MHP government knows no bounds in its immoral actions. With its unethical, unscrupulous and fascist measures it wants to destroy all social values and force society to capitulate. It believes that it will be able to hold on to power longer in this way. If it believes that the coronavirus is a good opportunity and that people will remain silent because they cannot gather, it is wrong.

The rage of our people has reached a peak in the face of this immoral and unprincipled behaviour. This inhumane attack is not only a crime against the freedom fighters, but against all our people and humanity. Those who call themselves human beings must not remain silent on this crime against humanity. All our people must stand behind the martyrs and do what the situation demands."