
August 30, 2012
ISTANBUL, Turkey,— An official at Malatya Forensic Medicine Institute claimed that internal organs of dead Kurdish guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK are sold to some certain Turkish hospitals on the basis of a ‘confidential’ document presented by the Ministry of Health, ANF news agency reported.
The Institute official, asking to be mentioned unnamed, said in an interview to Lekolin website that the organs of dead guerrillas, who are held at institutes on grounds of DNA test after urgently being taken there from clashes area, are mainly sold to GATA (Gülhane Military Medical Academy’s Hospital) as well as some other military and civil hospitals determined by the Ministry of Health.
Bodies of dead guerrillas are mainly taken to the medicine institutes in Malatya, Adana, Ankara, İstanbul and Trabzon.
The official said that the practice is grounded on a ‘confidential’ document which was earlier conveyed to the each of governor’s offices, regional commands and local health authorities. According to this document,www.ekurd.net the official claims, it is asked that the bodies of dead guerrillas with uninjured organs should urgently be taken to nearest health institutions within 24 hours after the death to not to allow the deterioration of physical chemistry.
According to the source of the news, the places of the removed organs are filled with cotton before the bodies of guerrillas are delivered to families after a so-called DNA test and autopsy.
The official further says that the bodies of dead guerrillas are also used as cadaver at some medical faculties in Turkey and Kurdistan. He notes that the bodies used at these faculties are later buried in cemeteries of the nameless or town cemeteries outside the knowledge of their families so that the bodies become deformed there.
The Institution official also gives an astonishing detail saying that soldiers from regional commands inform forensic medicine institutions yet during the operations and ask them to make preperations for organ operations. The official adds that some institutes had already been given the preparation order before the Dersim operation in January when eight HPG (People’s Defense Forces, the military wing of PKK) guerrillas died, the Şırnak-Besta operation in February when 15 HPG guerrillas died and the Bitlis operation in March when 15 YJA-STAR (Free Women's Troops) lost their live.
The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem, Turkey has always refused saying that it will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country. More than 40,000 people have since been killed.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.