The bodies of the Kurdish fighters who have been killed in clashes during Turkey’s cross-border military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan have reportedly been kept for long periods of time in a morgue in the State Hospital in the Kurdish-majority city of Şırnak (Sirnex) in Turkey.
While the requests of families of the deceased to retrieve the bodies for burial have been rejected, the bodies have been buried in a graveyard’s quarters for the ‘unclaimed’ and ‘unidentified.’
Eyewitnesses told Mesopotamia News Agency that the bodies in the morgue were taken late at night by the police and transported in armoured vehicles to be buried in a graveyard in the Bahçelievler district of Şırnak.
There are reportedly 69 graves in the graveyard while there were only 32 graves five months ago. Indicating that bodies are being buried almost every week, an eyewitness has stated that entry into the graveyard is now restricted: ”Generally, the bodies are brought in at around 01:00 am. We witnessed three or four bodies being buried in one grave. They did not allow us to enter the graveyard,” they noted.