Bêrîtan Elyakut/JINHA

RIHA - For eight days, the families of 20 YPJ/YPG fighters have been waiting for the right to retrieve their children's bodies. The families say they refuse to leave until they are given the bodies.

In the Turkish government's escalating new form of war in Kurdistan, Turkish officials have denied permission for the bodies of 20 fallen YPJ/YPG fighters to cross the border from Kobanê. Families are now on the eighth day of their wait to retrieve their children's bodies so they can bury them.

"Our children fought for the dignity of humanity," said Asiye Tekin, mother of the fallen YPJ fighter Zeynep Tekin (nom de guerre Evindar Botan). Zeynep's body is among those being detained at the border. "Today, the Turkish government is not giving up their bodies, because these people fought for honor. Our children's bodies scare this government." She called Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a "lie machine" and said that mothers could no longer believe his statements.

"Enough already; stop torturing the bodies," said İsmiye Aygül, who has been waiting in the extreme heat for days to retrieve the body of her younger brother, YPG fighter Salih Aygül (nom de guerre Rustem Cudi). "In fact, [the Turkish government's] goal is to cause pain to the Kurdish people and to stamp them out, but we won't be stamped out."

The 20 families have all committed to remain at the border until the bodies of their children are returned to them.

(fk/cm)