Herekol Festival cancelled on account of Lice massacre

2014-06-08 13:11:46

SİİRT (DİHA) - The two-day ‘Herekol Çemê Karê peace festival’, organised by the Siirt Municipality which started on Herekol mountain in Pervari district on 7 June, was transformed into a protest when news of the people shot dead in Lice reached the festival.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Provincial Co-chair M.Ata İnan said the festival had been stopped half way through and that they had begun a day of resistance. İnan, said: "Our friends in Lice have been martyred in the struggle for democracy. We want everyone in the region to adopt an approach appropriate to the resistance in Lice and Mesken." Thousands of people had gone to the festival from Urfa, Mardin, Şırnak, Batman, Antep, Izmir and Istanbul. Before the festival started a group including the former mayor of Siirt, Selim Sadak, visited the ‘Şehit Rüstem and Ezime cemetery’ containing the graves of ARGK and People’s Protection Forces (HPG) guerrillas.

Herekol mountain was covered with PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and HPG (People's Defense Forces) flags and yellow, red and green colours and posters of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

(nt)