Women to go to border to reclaim the bodies of martyrs

Woman co-chairs HDP, HDK, DBP, and DTK will go to the border between North and South Kurdistan on August 6 in order to support the families who are prevented from receiving the bodies of their children at Habur border gate.

Woman co-chairs, co-spokespersons and deputies of HDP, HDK, DBP, and DTK and the members of Women’s Freedom Assembly will go to the border between North and South Kurdistan on August 6 in order to support the families who are prevented from receiving the bodies of their children at Habur border gate.

The bodies of 13 YPG, YPJ and HPG fighters have been kept at Habur border gate since July 25 as Turkish authorities refuse to hand over the bodies to the families of the deceased fighters.

Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) Co-spokesperson Sebahat Tuncel reported that woman co-chairs of the HDP, HDK, DBP and DTK held a meeting today in order to discuss what women could do for the delivery of the bodies and to support the families waiting at the border. Tuncel said women decided to go to the border town of Silopi on August 6. Members of Women’s Freedom Assembly will accompany the women.

Tuncel told that they had been in contact with the authorities from AKP government as well as the Directorate of Religious Affairs, but could not receive any response. She added: “We decided to go to Silopi as we thought that it was now time to take a clear stance against this attitude”.

Tuncel stressed that the refusal of delivering the martyrs’ bodies by the AKP government, whose members frequently talk about religion and religious duties, contradicts with conscience. HDK Co-spokesperson noted that the government was psychologically torturing the mothers of the martyrs, to which women wanted to put an end by going to the Silopi border in order to support martyrs' mothers waiting to receive the bodies of their children. At the end of her statement, Tuncel said “We stand with the mothers and women waiting there, and we will go to the border on August 6 in order to reclaim the bodies of our children.”