Funeral of guerrilla Zerdeşt Suruç takes place under military siege

HPG guerrilla Zerdeşt Suruç (Adem Özkan) was buried in his village of Yıldız (Zoncik) in the district of Suruç (Pirsûs) on Wednesday night. The army, however, showed up and harassed mourners.

Guerrilla Zerdeşt Suruç was killed on 1 September in a Turkish air raid on the Bagok massif in the northern Kurdish province of Mardin (Mêrdîn). After a DNA test, the family was able to receive the freedom fighter’s body from the forensic medicine department in Mardin on Wednesday and bring it back to his homeland.

Even before the convoy carrying the coffin arrived, the Turkish military surrounded the village of Yıldız with hundreds of soldiers. Despite threats and harassment, many people went to the cemetery, which was also surrounded by the military.

The military only allowed six people into the burial site and threatened that they would take the body and bury it in an unknown location if the people did not leave. The military also prevented the religious burial rites, and prohibited the filming of the funeral.

The funeral eventually took place under military blockade. But the crowd that had gathered around the besieged cemetery stayed there in a sign of solidarity with the family of the guerrilla.