Deputies of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) have attended the funerals of PKK militants multiple times although the party members claim that they do not support the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, NATO and Turkey. Below we provide a list of the PKK funerals attended by HDP deputies and mayors.

29 September 2015: HDP deputy Burcu Celik Ozkan and co-mayors from the HDP-controlled municipality of Malazgirt attended the funeral of PKK militant Ozgur Akinel. Ozkan laid flowers on Akinel’s grave.

3 October 2015: HDP deputies Leyla Birlik, Faysal Sariyildiz, and Aycan Irmez attended the funeral of Haci Lokman Birlik, who was killed while attacking the police with a rocket launcher during clashes between security forces and PKK militants.

6 October 2015: HDP Tunceli deputies Alican Onlu and Edibe Sahin attended the funeral of a senior PKK figure, Ismail Aydemir, who used the code name Baran Dersim.

22 February 2016: HDP deputy Tuba Hezer attended the funeral of the alleged attacker behind the Ankara car bombing which killed 28 people and wounded 61.

16 March 2016: HDP Batman deputy Mehmet Ali Aslan and HDP Siirt deputy Besime Konca attended the funeral of PKK militant Cihat Turkan.

29 April 2016:  HDP Agri deputy Dirayet Tasdemir attended the funeral of 18-year-old PKK militant Umit Polat who had been neutralised by security officials in an operation conducted in Kagizman, Agri on April 25.

10 May 2016: HDP deputies claimed the body of a suicide bomber, Eser Cali, who wounded 13 civilians in the city of Bursa.

2 June 2016: Attending the funeral of the PKK militant Antika Acar, who was killed in a clash in the Silopi district of Sirnak, HDP Agri deputy Dilan Dirayet Tasdemir was seen praying for the deceased.

15 June 2016: HDP-run Kayapinar Municipality co-mayors Fatma Arsimet and Mehmet Ali Aydin, and Baglar Municipality co-mayors Esref Guler and Birsen Kaya Akat attended the funeral of the suicide bomber who killed 12 people in Istanbul’s Vezneciler district and helped carry the coffin.

4 July 2016: HDP Diyarbakir deputies Sibel Yigitalp, Nursel Aydogan and then-Diyarbakir mayor Gulten Kisanak attended the funeral of PKK militant Mehmet Sirin Kocakaya who carried out an attack in Ankara that resulted in the death of 29 civilians.

6 July 2016: HDP deputies Dirayet Tasdemir, Berdan Ozturk and the mayor of Dogubeyazit attended the funeral of PKK militant Rohat Ozbay.

28 July 2016: HDP deputies Dirayet Tasdemir and Agri Deputy mayor Halef Keklik attended the funeral of PKK militant Ferzende Mazlumi, whose code name was Canfeda Rojhilat, and helped bury the body.

14 August 2016: HDP Agri Deputy Berdan Ozturk attended the funeral of PKK militant Guler Yarici, aka Zinarin Intikam, who was killed in a clash between security officials and PKK militants in Diyarbakir.

24 September 2016: HDP deputies Sibel Yigitalp and Feleknas Uca attended the funeral of Baran Kaval, whose code name was Tufan Amed. He was killed in the city of Sirnak.

25 October 2016: Three deputies from the HDP – Ziya Pir, Feleknas Uca and Sibel Yigitalp – attended the funeral of four PKK militants in the Baglar district of the southeastern Diyarbakir province. The four had been killed by security forces in an operation between Oct. 16 and 18. 

17 November 2016: HDP deputy Alican Onlu was among the crowd bidding farewell to Celal Oduncu, one of the 14 militants killed in airstrikes targeting the PKK on Nov. 8.

30 March 2017: HDP deputy Alican Onlu attended the burial of PKK militant Murat Gungormus who was killed in Tunceli. The deputy also delivered a eulogy speech.

11 October 2017: HDP Adana deputy Meral Danis Bestas and HDP Mardin deputy Erol Dora were among those receiving the dead bodies of two PKK militants who were killed in Mugla in a clash with police.

10 November 2017: HDP deputy Leyla Birlik attended the funeral of a member of the PKK who was killed in a clash with police in Diyarbakir.