Father ends hunger strike on 90th day after receiving son’s bones in Turkey’s east

TUNCELİ

A 90-day hunger strike by a father demanding to be given his dead son’s remains in the eastern province of Tunceli has ended after he finally received his son’s bones. 

Kemal Gün, 70, has been on hunger strike in a park in central Tunceli, demanding the retrieval of the dead body of his son, who was killed in a Turkish air strike carried out against the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). 

Murat Gün was killed in the Ced Valley of Tunceli in an air strike carried out on Nov. 7, 2016. His father has been awaiting his son’s corpse to bury him.

The Tunceli Governor’s Office previously decided to give the bones back to the father and the bones were delivered to the Tunceli Municipality by the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, before being given to Gün to be buried in Hozat Cemetery on May 24.

The governor’s office released a statement after the delivery, saying that the delay was caused by a DNA examination in the forensic medicine institute. 

“The reason for the delay was conveyed to Kemal Gün and his lawyers,” the statement said. 

Oya Aslan, one of Gün’s lawyers, said the father’s health condition could deteriorate severely because of 90 days of hunger striking. 

“He will undergo a detailed health check in Istanbul after the funeral ceremony,” Aslan said.
 
Another lawyer, Engin Gökoğlu, said Gün will start to receive treatment. 

“He hasn’t decided which hospital he will receive treatment, but he will be fed just like the way he was during the hunger strike until he receives treatment,” Gökoğlu said.

Gün, meanwhile, announced he ended his hunger strike at the park where he has been for 90 days. He previously said that he would only end it after burying his son’s bones. 

“They should give my son’s bones back to me. I will quit my strike immediately when he has a grave. I have a right to a graveyard like everyone else, and I want it,” Gün said on May 15.