The Garzan Cemetery, located between the villages of Oleka Jor and Oleka Jêr in Bitlis (Bedlîs) and the resting place of 267 people, was attacked between 8 and 17 December 2017. The assault began with the destruction of gravestones. Then, between 14 and 17 December, soldiers entered the cemetery and used excavators to dig up every grave, removing the remains and placing them in boxes.
The attack did not stop at the graves. A mosque and an academy located within the cemetery grounds were also destroyed by excavators. When the incident came to light, the families of the deceased were informed that the remains had been transported to Istanbul.
Following the destruction, soldiers constructed a military outpost on the hill above the cemetery and banned access for seven years. Even today, access to the area requires identity checks. After eight years, all that remains of the cemetery are piles of dirt and broken stones. Only a section of the perimeter wall is still standing.
In the footage and photographs we captured in the area, the remains of the opened graves appear as mounds of scattered soil. Due to the long-standing ban, no proper investigation has been carried out at the site. Locals claim that bones are still present and are calling for a thorough investigation and for the desecrated cemetery not to be left in this abandoned state.
The cemetery remained inaccessible for eight years
Only 24 out of the 267 bodies removed from the cemetery and transported to Istanbul after the attack have been returned to their families over the past eight years. After the remains were secretly moved to Istanbul, some families provided DNA samples but have been waiting for the results for years. During this time, it was revealed that the remains were buried beneath a sidewalk in Kilyos following an examination by the Forensic Medicine Institute. Families who were able to recover their loved ones through DNA matching described the situation as “barbaric,” while the location of the remains that yielded no DNA match is still unknown.
While families continue their struggle, the cemetery, previously closed to all access, was filmed for the first time this year. Entry into the area was allowed only after identity checks, and the cemetery, located along the road, was found to be in an unrecognizable and devastated condition.
Villagers: Human bones may still be present
The cemetery, now reduced to little more than fragments of stone and earth, has become unrecognizable. The shapes of the graves have shifted and are no longer identifiable. Not a single piece remains from the mosque and academy once located within the cemetery grounds. The only indication that this area was once a burial site is the crumbling cemetery wall, barely still standing.
Due to the ban, no investigation has been carried out in all these years, and the destruction has only deepened with time. Villagers living in the area are calling for a detailed examination of the cemetery. Some locals who work as shepherds claimed they have encountered human bones within the grounds.
The people of the region said that leaving the cemetery in such a state and preventing visits is neither ethical nor humane. They are calling on human rights defenders and politicians to visit the site. Emphasizing that the alleged bones could be uncovered through proper investigation, the villagers said: “There is still a spirit in those graves,” underscoring that the atrocity they witnessed must not be forgotten.
An attempt to erase collective memory
Semra Çağlar Gökalp, a Member of Parliament for Bitlis from the DEM Party, spoke to us about the issue and said they have submitted a parliamentary motion to investigate the cemetery. Emphasizing that the destruction was aimed at erasing memory, she described the incident as “a systematic denial of a people’s memory, the right to mourn, and human dignity.”
According to Semra Çağlar Gökalp, the attack on the Garzan Cemetery is not an isolated incident. She said, “This is a continuation of the long-standing policies of memory erasure targeting the Kurdish people. The fact that the graves of Sheikh Said, Sayyid Riza, and Said-i Kurdi are unknown, and the attack on the remains in Garzan, stem from the same mentality.”
No investigation or inquiry has been conducted
Semra Çağlar Gökalp also addressed the issue of military restrictions in the region, stating that for the past ten years, the truth about the Garzan Cemetery has been deliberately concealed through the declaration of military prohibited zones in areas such as Sheikh Cuma.
She noted that they visited the cemetery site with a delegation on 1 May and said, “It had changed so much that we could barely recognize it. The entire appearance of the cemetery had been deliberately erased. Even the small mosque within it had been demolished.”
Semra Çağlar Gökalp added that since 2017, no investigation or inquiry has been conducted, delegations have not been allowed to enter the area, and the villages surrounding the cemetery remain under constant blockade.
She stated that investigating the human rights violations at the Garzan Cemetery would serve as a “gesture of goodwill” in confronting the past and establishing justice in Turkey. She said, “The path to justice and social peace begins with respect for the dead and a confrontation with the past.”
Source: ANF News
