HDP deputies hold protest for allowance of YPG bodies in Turkey

MARDİN – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A group of people, including Turkish lawmakers, held a protest on Aug. 3 in southeastern province of Mardin, incensed that 13 members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), who were killed in Syria during fights with jihadists, were not allowed to enter Turkey.

The bodies of the 13 YPG militants are at the Habur crossing on the Turkish-Iraqi border, as the officials did not allow them to cross the border. Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Gülser Yıldırım, Enise Güneyli and Mehmet Ali Aslan, as well as several mayors held a sit in protest inside Mardin Governor’s office on Aug. 3. Police officers removed press members out of the building forcefully when cameras recorded a scuffle between the police officers and the deputies inside the governor’s office building. After a while, the group continued their protest outside the building. 

Mardin Governor Ömer Faruk Koçak’s assistant invited the HDP deputies to hold a meeting with the governor.

The deputies rejected the demand. “The bodies waiting at the border must be allowed to enter Turkey immediately. Nowhere in the world, not even during wars, are funerals treated this way. The bodies have been waiting in this hot weather for eight days. This is disrespectful, unlawful and unjust,” said Yıldırım, vowing to continue their protest until the bodies are allowed to enter the country.