Hunger striking father fined over 18,000 liras for ‘occupying public space’ in Turkey’s east

TUNCELİ – Doğan News Agency

A father who has been on a hunger strike for more than 80 days has been fined over 18,000 Turkish Liras for “occupying public space” in the eastern province of Tunceli. 

Kemal Gün, 70, has been on hunger strike 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) in a park in central Tunceli. 

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. 

A fine worth 18,387 liras, which corresponds to 227 liras daily, was imposed on Kemal Gün over “occupying” the spot in which he has been carrying out his hunger strike.  

Saying that he will continue his strike until he retrieves his son’s body from a forensic medicine institute in the eastern province of Malatya, Gün noted that if authorities give him his bones, he will stop his hunger strike immediately. 

“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, adding that they searched the area targeted in the air strike with a prosecutor.

“We want our son to have a grave; we want to visit and pray for him. We searched the bunker where my son died, with the prosecutor. We looked for dead bodies and I found my son’s bones and dug them out with my own hands, before handing them to the state. I want the bones that I delivered to the state back,” he also said. 

Gün also commented on the administrative fine imposed on him.

“They tell me that I’m occupying public space. But in fact, this place is a park and I have the right to sit here,” he said, adding that his health condition is deteriorating.

“My aches are increasing and my legs hurt. I have no strength to walk; they take me to the bathroom with a wheelchair. Sometimes I go with a walking stick. My health condition is deteriorating day by day and I’m losing weight. I’m constantly being harassed here. They apply some sort of psychological torture. This torture should end. I won’t leave this place until my son’s bones are given to me, I’ll continue my hunger strike until I die. I have no political aim and I’m not on hunger strike for political purposes. My only aim is to obtain my son’s bones,” he added.