University lecturer suggests cremating bodies of Kurdish activists after they are killed

Diyarbakir, Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, has become one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter after the remains of a young man, killed during armed conflicts in Diyarbakir's Sur district seven years ago and secretly buried in the city, were finally handed over in a sack to the father following a DNA analysis.

While many people on social media posted messages expressing protest over the Turkish authorities' attitude towards the family and against this treatment of one's remains, a large number of people took an opposite stance, voicing support for the treatment.

A university lecturer drew reactions after he advocated cremating the remains in similar situations, a practice that is not even legal in Turkey, and is prohibited by Islamic rules because it is considered a violation of the dignity of the human body.

Yuksel Hos, a lecturer in Trakya University and an opinion writer for the Independent Turkish, said in response to a tweet by human rights defender Salih Gergerlioglu:

"Now this is the reason that I am unable to understand the compassion of the state. Would it be so hard to cremate it and turn it into dust? It could have been done with half a liter of oil. It's hard for me to understand why we let such dramas unfold. While universities are unable to find cadavre, we even pay for the cargo to hand it to the family. And we make enemies in the process."

The tweet by Hos, who has some 124,000 followers, has received 875 likes.

About the case

Remains that had been discovered during an excavation in a neighborhood of Sur district on 7 February 2021, were sent for DNA analysis following a legal appeal by a family who suspected that it could be their son, who was reported to have been shot in the same neighborhood five years earlier.

On 18 November 2021, the family proved the bones belonged to their son, Hakan Arslan, with a 95 percent DNA match.

Nine months later, the remains were handed in a plastic bag to father Ali Riza Arslan.