ŞIRNAK - Hatice Buruntekin, daughter of Ayşe Buruntekin, who was killed during the curfews in Silopi and whose body was held in the same room with her children for 7 days, said: “My mother has always been a source of courage for us. Her ululations drowned the sounds of the bombs everytime they shelled Silopi."

 

In the Silopi district of Şırnak, 68 people, including children, the elderly and women, were killed during the 38-day curfew declared on December 14, 2015. On the 20th day of the curfews, 40-year-old Ayşe Buruntekin, who was the target of snipers, was one of those killed while she went to get food from the neighbors for her 6-month-old baby Rüstem Cudi.

 

Ayşe Buruntekin's body could not be laid to rest due to the curfew, and she was held in the same house with her 9 children for 7 days. One of the children who spent 7 days with their mother's dead body was 6-month-old Rüstem Cudi. Rüstem Cudi tried to survive by sucking milk from his mother's breast.

 

When all the family's efforts for the burial were inconclusive, Buruntekin's body was dragged on the ground and taken to the mosque in the neighborhood. While the family and neighbors were carrying the body, she was again the target of bullets. Fortunately nobody was injured. The body of Buruntekin was abducted by the soldiers and police from the morguw and  was taken to the Şırnak State Hospital morgue without her family's knowladge. After the autopsy, Buruntekin's body was buried in the "cemetery of the nameless" in the Yenişehir District of Silopi. The Buruntekin family was able to take the body as a result of the DNA test they did later.

 

Speaking on the 7th anniversary of her mother's murder, her daughter Hatice Buruntekin said that during the curfew, snipers shot even the leaves flying in the wind.

 

SHE DID NOT LEAVE HER HOME

 

Pointing out that they did not leave their homes after the curfew was declared, Buruntekin said: "My mother ululated everytime we heard the sounds of bombs to drown the sound of the bombs. She gave us courage until the day she was murdered. We hugged our mother's lifeless body together with my brother Rüstem for days. I was giving milk to Rüstem with a bottle, but he was not drinking. He was just trying to suck milk from my mother's breast. It was a very difficult time. We applied many institutions, including the Ministry of Health, but no one came. After we took the body to the mosque, soldiers and police came and drove us away. I shouted at the soldiers and police and told that they are 'killers'. They insulted us and told us that they will kill us all there.” 

 

'THE WHO KILLED MY MOTHER ARE TERRORISTS'

 

Reminding that her mother's body was abducted from the mosque by the police, Buruntekin said: "We searched for my mother's body for days, but we could not find her. They took the body to the hospital, performed an autopsy and buried it in the 'cemetery of the nameless'. After the curfew was over, we gave blood samples for a DNA test. We took my mother's body from the 'cemetery of the nameless' and laid to rest her. We were sued about the funeral process. My mother was called a 'terrorist' in the court. In response, I said that those who murdered my mother are 'terrorists'. Many people, young and old, women, children and babies, were massacred in Silopi. Rüstem is 7 years old now. The first word he said was mother and he said it to me. After Rüstam got a little older, he realized that I was not his mother. He wants to call me mom. He constantly asks, 'why don't we have a mother, where is our mother?' What we saw and got through will never be forgotten. There is no justice. Those who committed this massacre are still not punished. If there was justice, my mother would not have been murdered."