JINHA

WAN - It emerged yesterday that Turkish security forces tortured the body of a woman guerrilla, Kevser Eltürk (nom de guerre Ekin Wan). Ekin's body was dragged through the streets and exhibited naked in photographs shared on social media.

On August 10, YJA STAR guerrilla Kevser Eltürk (Ekin Wan) died in a clash with Turkish security forces in the district of Varto, in Muş province of Turkey.

A photograph of a naked, tortured body began circulating on social media over the weekend, apparently originally shared by Varto police. Hamiyet Şahin, the provincial co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) in Ekin's native province of Van, helped wash Ekin Wan's body for her funeral. She confirmed that the woman in the photographs was Ekin Wan.

"The person whose photograph is being shared on social media is the same as the woman guerrilla whose body we washed," said Hamiyet. "I recognized it from the bullet wound in her buttocks and left leg; it was a deep wound." Hamiyet described the signs of torture on Ekin's body, including deep bruising on her neck and legs and torn skin. She also had bruises from a rope on her neck.

"There was probably a rope tied around her neck to drag her from somewhere far away, in order to display her," said Hamiyet. She also noted that the autopsy seemed careless, with the stitches thrown at random, and that the person conducting the autopsy may not have paid much attention to the condition of Ekin's body.

The governor in the province of Muş has confirmed in an indirect statement that the picture shared on social media depicts Ekin. The governor announced that it was not the police who tortured and exhibited the body who would be investigated, but those who shared the photographs on social media.

Guerrillas who took control of the town of Varto yesterday did so as retaliation for the killing of Ekin and the treatment of her body, reported BBC Turkish. The BBC report, which relied on local sources, said: "Armed people standing watch at trenches said that this action was in retaliation for the killing of a woman guerrilla, who a few days ago was killed by a special operations team in Varto, and whose naked body was exhibited in the press."

(ht-mc/fk/cm)