NEWS CENTER - Twelve years ago, a young man named Sidar documented the Xerzan Cemetery as it stood before it was destroyed, capturing its condition in 11 photographs. Four months after taking the photographs, he joined the guerrilla ranks. The cemetery was later destroyed, and the remains of 267 people buried there were removed.

 

In August 2013, the Xerzan Cemetery was established through the joint efforts of guerrillas and local residents in the vicinity of Oleka Jor village in the Xerzan region of Bedlîs. The site was not limited to burial grounds; it also included a mosque, a mourning house, communal gathering areas and an academy building. The remains of 267 guerrillas who lost their lives in clashes in different parts of the region between 1990 and 2010 were buried at the cemetery.

 

The cemetery and all the structures built on the site were completely destroyed in December 2017 following attacks by soldiers and village guards. The cemetery was bombed and then bulldozed, and the remains of all 267 people buried there were removed without their families’ knowledge and taken to Istanbul, where they were buried beneath pavements in Kilyos. To date, families have recovered the remains of only around 30 of the deceased, while the rest remain buried beneath the pavements.

 

The area around Xerzan Cemetery is surrounded by rugged, high mountains and dense woodland. Oak trees are abundant, along with walnut, hawthorn, apple, pear, plum and many other fruit trees. The area is also crisscrossed by streams and springs of ice-cold water, making it a striking natural landscape. Like many other villages in the region, Korcan, Oleka Jor and Oleka Jêr, among others, were emptied in the 1990s as fierce clashes intensified, with the authorities citing “security” concerns. Residents who were forcibly displaced from their homes and lands by the state settled in Turkey’s major cities. As they built new lives in the cities they moved to, they continued to preserve their language and culture and maintain their ties to their homeland.

 

RETURNING TO THEIR ROOTS IN DEFIANCE OF THE VILLAGE GUARD SYSTEM

 

Sidar’s family was among those who left the area in the 1990s after refusing to accept pressure to join the village guard system. In the 2000s, they returned to their village and rebuilt the homes that had been destroyed. Living with his family in their home village of Korcan, Sidar witnessed the events unfolding in the area. Korcan is located two kilometers uphill from Xerzan Cemetery. Sidar frequently visited the cemetery, which was built in 2013, and followed its construction at every stage. During his time in the village, the environment around him and his encounters with the lives of the guerrillas left a profound impression on him.

 

11 PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IN 2014

 

In 2014, Sidar went to the cemetery with his phone and took 11 photographs, as though he sensed he was seeing the site for the last time. He photographed the cemetery entrance, including the gate bearing a poster of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan; the sign reading “Goristana Şehîden Xerzanê” (Xerzan Martyrs’ Cemetery); the graves with flowers placed on the earth; the tent set up below the cemetery; and the graves that had not yet been marked with headstones. Through these photographs, Sidar immortalized Xerzan Cemetery as it looked before its destruction, leaving behind a lasting visual memory of the site.

 

Four to five months after taking those 11 photographs, Sidar joined the guerrilla ranks.

 

There is a world of difference between the photographs Sidar took in 2014 and what remains of the cemetery today. Without Sidar’s photographs, or a villager from Oleka Jor who knows where the graves were, it would be extremely difficult to locate the cemetery where 267 guerrillas were buried.

 

MA / Dilgeş Ruvanas