Ozalp- Northern Kurdistan: The body of Kurdish child Oğuzcan Akyürek, who was killed after a grenade explosion next to the military shooting polygon called Mustafa Muğlalı Barracks, reached his hometown Ozalp.
The body of Kurdish child Oğuzcan Akyürek which was taken to the Centenary Hospital of Education and Research for the autopsy was released earlier today. After the funeral car reached the hometown Ozalp thousands of people gathered together began to march towards the Mustafa Muğlalı Barracks where the explosion has happened.
The angry community of Ozalp who have closed their shops protesting the incident began to march from the mayor office to the Mustafa Muğlalı Barracks shouting “ Murderer Muğlalı, get lost from Kurdistan”, “ Martyrs live forever”, Long live Apo” and “ Revenge”.
After the religious rituals in the town mosque, the body of the dead child will be taken to the Public Cemetery where he will be buried.
Yesterday Mayor of Ozalp Murat Durmaz spoke to ANF and said that an eyewitness to the incident, one of the injured boy’s named Yunus Yaman has given his statement to the police about what happened and has told that a soldier has thrown a grenade towards them.. Another eyewitness, a 29-year old man, has said that in fact the children who were playing next to the army base polygon did not actually found the bomb. According to the eyewitness a soldier has thrown the hand grenade where children were playing and then escaped.
On the other hand, in his statement the governor of Ozalp did not mention once the cause of the explosion or the story of the eyewitnesses. The explosion killed 13 years old Oğuzcan Akyürek and injured other five children.
The location of the military barrack where the explosion took place is in the centre of the town Ozalp. The barracks old name is the Second Frontier Battalion. In 2004 the battalion’s name changed into Gen. Mustafa Muğlalı Barrack. General Muğlalı is a hated figure bye many Kurds. He’s known by his brutal action against Kurds on 30th of July 1943 arresting and killing 33 Kurdish villagers. Although General Muğlalı has been sentenced to life then, his sentence was later commuted to 20 years imprisonment. General Mustafa Muğlalı died in prison while still serving his sentence.
Despite vehement protests from Kurdish politicians and NGO’s, the Turkish state refused to remove the name of “the Killer General”.