Urfa (Riha)’s Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) MP Dilan Kunt Ayan referenced widely circulated photographs from the funerals of those killed in clashes in Diyarbakir (Amed)’s Sur district. Ayan spoke at a press conference and said: “There is that image: water being sprayed onto a coffin, a barricade set up in front of it, and police water cannons turning on people simply trying to hold a condolence gathering. What you see there is not a single moment frozen in time. It is the systematic obstruction of a people’s right to mourn, of their conscience, of their ability to share a collective grief.”
Ayan said the photograph “speaks far more than any thousand-word report ever could.”
Dilan Kunt Ayan went on to recount the case of Xalê Behçet, a father from Southern Kurdistan (Başur) who learned of his son’s death years after losing him in the Metina region on 11 August 2020, only to find that even his right to hold a condolence gathering had been denied.
Ayan said that on 1 November, people in Urfa who gathered to offer condolences were blocked by police barricades and surrounded by a security cordon. She continued: “A father who had not seen his son for years, who learned of his death five years after it happened, who never even received his body, was forced to hold his condolence gathering inside a police blockade, with riot police surrounding him on all sides.”
Ayan described these practices as “shameful,” and added: “We will not stop honouring our grief or carrying our loved ones to their final resting place. But those who show no hesitation in inflicting cruelty even on coffins, graves and the dead must abandon this mindset.”
She pointed to recent incidents in Urfa, Şirnak (Şirnex), Cizre (Cizîr) and Ağrı (Agirî) as further examples of obstruction, noting that the same practices seen in the 2016 photograph continue today.
Ayan stressed that peace is not merely the silence of weapons, but also the work of healing wounds, recognising one another’s pain and showing mutual respect. She issued a direct appeal to the authorities: “End these practices immediately. We will continue, no matter the cost, to stand with our people, to tend to our wounds and to share our grief.”