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Mehmet Ali Koçak, who lives in Siirt (Sêrt) in Turkey, reacted against the unlawful decision to bury his son Abdullah Koçak in the cemetery of the nameless before his DNA test results could be used to enable him to bury his son in the family’s cemetery.
According to Mesopotamia Agency, Mehmet Ali’s son Abdullah Koçak was a member of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) who lost his life in a clash on 28 September in Siirt’s (Sêrt) Herekol region. Mehmet Ali went to the hospital on 29 September to collect his son’s body and provided a blood sample for a DNA test to establish his identity to the deceased Abdullah Koçak. However, without waiting for the DNA test result, Abdullah Koçak was buried in the common grave called the ”Zevye Cemetery”. The Koçak family, who received the DNA test results after 40 days, are applying to the Prosecutor’s Office to allow them to bury their son in the family cemetery.
Mehmet Ali Koçak reacted to the fact that the DNA test he gave for his son was positive, yet Abdullah Koçak’s body was buried in a hurry. Stating that the military officials directed them to the hospital to take him, Koçak said that he went to the hospital and gave the required blood sample with the permission of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Mehmet Ali Koçak stated that when he was asked about the DNA test 15 days later, he was informed that the body was in the morgue but that the family’s request to collect the body was not accepted. Mehmet Ali said: “The petition I submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office did not receive an answer. After 40 days, the result of the DNA test arrived. The result was 97.9% positive. I wanted that body to be buried with religious obligations, but they rejected this. They did not release his body to us. They buried my son in the cemetery on 2 October, after the positive DNA test result was known”, he said.
Funerals of this kind harm human dignity
Reacting to the difficulties they were exposed to, Mehmet Ali Koçak said: “They did not allow us to bury him in our own funeral. Why didn’t you allow it? My son is dead. Regardless of the ethnicity of a person, is it important after death? Is this what is done for a funeral?” Stating that funerals treated in this manner harms human dignity, Koçak called for the prevention of attacks on the deceased.
