The family of Sezer Arslan, a PKK terrorist killed in the extensive operations being carried out against the PKK by Turkish security forces following a terrorist attack that left 24 soldiers dead in Çukurca last month, spoke out against the PKK at the funeral and after the funeral of the slain militant. His father, Mehmet Arslan, put up Turkish flags inside and outside his house in the Korkut district of Muş province. Talking to a Cihan news agency reporter following the funeral, Mehmet Arslan said the PKK had deceived his son into joining its ranks. “Our family isn’t a traitor to its country; there is one state and one flag in Turkey. My son was killed for the PKK’s dirty intentions; we hope that another youth won’t be killed in vain. We are Muslims, we want to live in the same land with the same flag,” he said, speaking out against the PKK.
The uncle of the slain militant, Halil Arslan, told the reporter that his nephew had been attending the Hakkari Anatolian Teachers High School, but in 2009 he was deceived by PKK sympathizers and joined the terrorist organization. Stating that they were not traitors, Halil Arslan added: “Nothing can be achieved by killing police and soldiers, we love our country. The Kurdish and Turkish people fought together in the Turkish War of Independence, we founded this country together. We are loyal to our country. We sent Sezer to Hakkari for education, we didn’t send him there to become a terrorist of the PKK.”
The headman of the village, Mahmut Arat, said that they buried Sezer Arslan at night to prevent PKK sympathizers from turning the funeral into an opportunity for promoting the PKK. “Some PKK sympathizers who wanted to turn the funeral into a protest against the state called us to join the funeral, but we refused, saying everyone who wants to offer their condolences can come to the village, but we will not allow PKK sympathizers to use the funeral for their political aims. We won’t let people who have such aims enter our village,” he said.
“People who want to use our children’s deaths for their political aims and who deceive our children live in comfort. People selected as representatives of the Kurdish people are sunbathing in holiday resorts instead of going to Parliament [referring to the photos of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) deputy, Bengi Yıldız, who was photographed sunbathing with a woman in Bodrum in Muğla province]. They are manipulating and deceiving the Kurdish people,” Arat added.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish people’s reactions against the PKK attacks have been growing recently. Gathering to protest the terrorist attack that occurred in Bingöl last week, killing three people and injuring 21, civil society organizations, local authorities and opinion leaders in the eastern province of Bingöl, where the majority of the population is Kurdish, strongly condemned the deadly attacks perpetrated by the PKK and said brotherhood and unity in Turkey will not be affected by the PKK’s attacks.
