DİYARBAKIR- Despite all the efforts of father Ali Rıza Arslan who came to Diyarbakır 19 times to claim the body of his son whom he learned to be buried some place next to Hasırlı Mosque, he could not manage to claim his son’s body and he requests to get permission to search for his son in the area.
Hakan Arslan who was killed during the armed clashes in Sur during the curfew declared on December 2, 2015, was killed in January 22, 2015 and buried inside Sur because of the curfews. His body was not found since then.
Father Arslan have come to Diyarbakır 19 times in the past 3 years. He was not able to get any results from Diyarbakır Governership and Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor’s Office.Then with the help of his attorneys he contacted the people who were able to get out of Sur and got arrested and learned that his son was buried next to Hasırlı Mosque. He then applied again for locating and exhuming his son but the prosecutor’s office denied the application claiming there have been searches conducted in that exact place and no one’s body was found.
While Arslan family have been searching for their son’s body for 3 years, the construction in Sur have been going on with the advertisement “Sur is rising with love”. Father Arslan said: “ I want my son’s body. Government knows that he is in Sur. I am a grieving father, what did I do wrong? If they won’t search for him, then they must let me search for him myself. Now there is a construction site where he is buried. They are making ‘villa’s over there. All we want is a grave for our son that we can visit. Our pain is overwhelming.ANd we didn’t have the time to grieve for our son.”