Italian artist draws Kurdish father with a portrait of his son on wall

Italian artist draws Kurdish father with a portrait of his son on wall
Publish:
A+ A-
Costantini drew the father with the remains of his son who had gone missing during armed conflicts years ago, and whose bones were handed over by Turkish authorities in a sack.

Italian comic journalist and political activist Gianluca Costantini drew on a wall in Istanbul the picture of the Kurdish father who was handed the remains of his son in a sack seven years after he went missing.

The picture depicted the father carrying the remains, symbolized by a portrait of the son.

Constantini said in a tweet:

"A court in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir has returned the remains of Hakan Arslan unceremoniously to his family in a plastic bag nearly seven years after he died during a military crackdown in the city."

The Italian artist posted an image of the drawing on the wall with a note that said, "Hakan Arslan and his father on the streets of Istanbul."

The father Ali Riza Arslan, who was handed his son's remains on Monday, said to +Gercek's Remzi Budancir that a funeral procession has been held in their village in the eastern province of Erzurum for the burial on Tuesday.

The father told Budancir that "he felt awful" when the remains were handed to him in a sack by Turkish authorities.

"It shouldn't have been done like that," he added.