Troops obstruct funeral processions for Kurdish victims

Troops obstruct funeral processions for Kurdish victims
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People who arrived in a convoy of cars to join in the funeral procession for one of the Paris victims have been stopped and targeted with plastic bullets and tear gas.

Funeral processions for the two Kurdish victims of the 23 December attack in Paris were held on Thursday in Turkey despite efforts by Turkish state forces to prevent participation.

The remains of Mir Perwer (Mehmet Sirin Aydin), a political refugee who was killed in the attack, were snatched by the police at the airport of Mus, Perwer's Kurdish-majority hometown, and brought to the village of Ewran (officially Yesilova) through a route that was blocked to civilian traffic by state forces.

The village was cordoned off by state troops to prevent a convoy of people in cars from participating in the funeral procession, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.

A car carrying Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, Mus deputy for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was also stopped by the troops near the the village, and Kocyigit was forcibly prevented from entering the village on foot, MA said.

Perwer's remains were buried in a procession attended only by his family members.

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When the people in the convoy gathered outside the village for a public statement, they were targeted by troops with plastic bullets and tear gas.

Remains of victim carried in a truck

In a similar incident the family of Abdurrahman Kizil, another Kurdish victim of the 23 December attack, was denied a funeral car at the airport of Kars - Kizil's hometown that is under the rule of a government-appointed trustee since the removal of the elected mayor in October 2020. An ambulance was provided by the municipal administration of Patnos to carry Kizil's remains, but that was not allowed by Turkish officials who said some documents were missing.

Kizil's remains were subsequently brought in the back of a truck to the village of Qereguni in the district of Kagizman, MA said.

Parts of the convoy of cars were prevented from entering the village that was encircled by state troops, and reporters were prevented from taking pictures during the procession and burial.

Addressing the crowd, Saliha Aydeniz, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), said:

"Kurds are either arrested, or killed, or exiled. We are not even allowed to carry out a burial properly after a Kurd is killed (...) Everyone should know that Abdurrahman Kizil is a martyr of the Kurdish people. We will do our best to fulfill what he struggled and yearned for. The Kurdish people will not withdraw in the face of this oppression."

A funeral procession was held for the third victim Emine Kara (Evin Goyi) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), and her remains were buried in the Qandil Cemetery near the city of Sulaymaniyah.