Skull found at suspected mass grave

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The excavations, ordered by the prosecutor’s office in the Silopi district of Şırnak province, have been carried out at an abandoned installation belonging to the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Company, or BOTAŞ, and at another site along the Silopi-Cizre pipeline route.

Nuşirvan Elçi, the Şırnak Bar Association president, said all the unearthed items will be sent to Istanbul for forensic analysis and DNA tests, according to the Doğan news agency. The agency also reported that the digs came to an end over the weekend.

Among the latest items to be found is a rope with a knot that is believed to be used while binding people by their hands and feet from behind. Previous excavations have uncovered burned clothes and bones.

The investigation of the wells is part of an inquiry launched after Abdulkadir Aygan, a former informant from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, said many people were murdered by anti-terrorism squads in the 1990s and buried on the BOTAŞ property. Aygan said the victims were buried in the wells after being dipped in baths of acid.

Some 70 families of missing persons approached the prosecutor's office and requested an investigation.