AMED – Nefise erkek will apply to IHD for the bones of her son who was killed in a clash in 1996. 

 

Miğdat Erkek joined the PKK in 1992. He was killed in an armed clash in April 1996 in a rural area in the triangle of Licê and Pasur (Kulp) districts of Amed (Diyarbakır) and Dara Hêne (Genç) district of Çewlîg (Bingöl). 

 

Erkek's family learnt that their child had lost his life in the book "Chess Until the Leaves Bloom" written by M. Siraç Bilgin in 2000. In the first pages of the book, it was stated that Erkek had died together with a PKK member codenamed "Sultan", who was registered in the Curnê Reş (Hilvan) district of Riha (Urfa). It was also stated that the bodies of both PKK members were left in the Şatos Stream to prevent the soldiers from capturing them.

 

The family was unable to reach the bodies for many years despite all their attempts. The PKK announced in 2010 that 19 of its members had lost their lives on the dates in question. A condolence service was held in Mersin on 3 January 2010 for PKK member Migdat Erkek and his friends. In their research at the time, the family met residents of the village of Bawerdê in Licê district in 1996, when operations were ongoing and fierce clashes were taking place. 

 

The villagers told the family that the bodies of five PKK members, two of them women, had washed up on the banks of the Sarum Stream flowing near the village and that they had reported the situation to the Üçdamlar Gendarmerie Station Command. The fate of the bodies taken by the gendarmes from the Sarum Stream was not known.

 

EYEWITNESSES: BURIED NEAR THE POLICE STATION

 

Upon the renewed talk of a solution to the Kurdish issue, the family researched the area and reached eyewitnesses who witnessed that period in Bawerdê and who refused to give their names for security reasons. The eyewitnesses said that the PKK members were buried en masse in a pit dug by the side of a small stream next to the area used by the soldiers as Kademe (garage-repair shop) in the garden of the Gendarmerie Station with the help of a construction equipment brought by the soldiers.

 

Eyewitness A.A. said that the description of Sultan from Hilvan, described in the book Chess, was similar to that of the woman PKK member found in 1996.

 

The building, which was used as a police station at the time, was replaced by a school. The Erkek family demands that the bones of their child be returned to them and that they have a grave in this period when a solution to the Kurdish issue is being discussed. 

 

MOTHER NEFISE ERKEK: LET MY SON HAVE A GRAVE

 

Mother Nefise Erkek, 79, said: “We have asked everywhere for years to find a trace of my son. I want my son to have a grave before he dies.”

 

Stating that a specialised sergeant working at the Salat Police Station in Bismil at the time told them that Migdat had lost his lie, mother said: “If peace is being talked about, I want to be reunited with my son’s boned. Therefore, I want an investigation to be carried out in the are described by eyewitnesses.”

 

The Erkek family will apply to the Human Rights Association (IHD) Amed branch for their son’s bones.