Growing Anger At Government, Erdoğan Over Rising Military Casualties In Turkey

Recep Beycur, killed in Siirt Province on Wednesday

There is growing anger at the AKP government and President Erdoğan being voiced by the families and relatives of Turkish soldiers killed in rising violence over the past month, according to an article from DİHA carried by Özgür Gündem. The renewal of the conflict has been sparked by a unilateral decision by the government to re-initiate hostilities following a more than two-year cease fire.

On Wednesday 20 year old Recep Beycur was killed along with seven other soldiers in his unit when a mine exploded their vehicle on the road Şirvan-Pervari in Siirt province. However relatives of Beycur, speaking from his hometown in the Karaçoban district of Erzurum province, blamed Beycur’s death not on HPG guerillas but on the current AKP government and Turkish President Erdoğan for stoking the violence.

When soldiers accompanied by the local district Jandarma commander and a large number of special forces in armored vehicles arrived in Karaçoban to return Beycur’s body, relatives and friends of Beycur verbally confronted the commander, saying that “it was [he] who killed our child.” They refused to allow Turkish flags to be hung throughout the village or for a military funeral to take place.

As the crowd grew it was demanded that the military leave the area and the soldiers were eventually forced from the neighborhood.  

An uncle of Beycur, Ömer Bilir, told DİHA that “I sent my own brother and I get a corpse in return. Let the President know. Does he have any idea how much I have suffered until this age? Brother is made to fight brother. May God be angry with him, let the same thing befall his son. If it were his son is this how it would be? Let God not accept this.”

Veysel Akkoyun, who works in the Siirt State Hospital morgue where Beycur’s body was first brought after his death, said that his mother attempted to reach her son numerous times but that the commander refused to answer. “When the commander took out his home there was a call from “mom.” This number called 2 or 3 times but the commander also put it on busy. Those people really have no right to say anything.”

“Erdoğan Is My Son’s Murderer”

Beycur has since been buried in the Kırımkaya neighborhood of Karaçoban. The family did not allow a military ceremony at the airport or in the village where he was born, but chose to bury their son themselves. They also refused a gift of food sent by the district governor to family mourning observations.

Beycur’s father, Selahattin Beycur, told DİHA that “it was Erdoğan who has created this pain in my heart. My son’s only murderer is Erdoğan and the AKP. But in despite of them I am still calling for peace and brotherhood. Both the guerilla and the soldier killed in the mountains are my children. Yesterday Erdoğanw came on on television. He was laughing loudly. Does he care at all that 8 soldiers have died? Does this man have no dignity or honor?”

‘Don’t Send Your Children To The Army”

Beycur’s mother, Hazal Beycur, put out a call for families to help their children avoid military service, saying “I am speaking to all mothers. Don’t send your children to the army. Erdoğan is killing our children one by one because he did not get the results he wanted in the election.”