Turkey’s Gendarmerie General Command has sued a Kurdish family in the eastern Ağrı (Agirî) province for damages incurred in a 2019 operation against the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), in which the father of the family was killed, Mezopotamya Agency reported.
The family of Murat Kaya, who was killed in a dawn raid on his village Soğukpınar in December 2019, was sued for 7,817 liras ($270) in damages to public property and personnel. Debt collectors have been tasked with the collection.
At the time of Kaya’s death, his sister Mehzer Yalçın told Mezopotamya Agency that he had been shot and killed when he stepped outside in his slippers on hearing gunshots, to see what was happening.
A resident reported soldiers beating villagers and forcing them into the mud and manure. “I heard them discuss running us over with the armoured vehicle so they could count us as terrorists,” he told Mezopotamya.
The gendarmerie prevented Kurdish MPs from entering the village after the event, and Kaya’s two brothers and his wife were arrested and detained for several days.
“They are trying to wash their hands of their crimes by calling my son a terrorist,” mother Dilber Kaya said. “The whole village knows my son was just looking to get by. He was killed just for being there. My son never committed offences or any sins.”
Kaya’s family were kept from holding a religiously appropriate funeral for him, and were forced to bury him under a gendarmerie blockade. Soldiers also prevented the family from setting up a space to receive visitors in accordance with Kurdish tradition.
