Bones of Dersim massacre victims reburied in ceremony

The bones of 11 victims of the Dersim massacre in 1938, including seven children, have been reburied in a ceremony in the current-day eastern province of Tunceli after having been recovered in mass grave excavations a year ago. 

A memorial was held in the Karabak?r village of Tunceli's Hozat district to remember the 11 victims of the 1938 massacre in Dersim, an older name of Tunceli. 

Diyarbak?r Mayor Gülten K??anak, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chair Kamuran Yüksek, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Tunceli deputy Alican Ünlü and Tunceli co-mayors Mehmet Ali Bul and Nurhayat Altun took part in the ceremony, in addition to the victims' families and other prominent local figures. 

Human bone fragments were found during an excavation in April 2015 in order to determine whether 24 people from the Canan and Baran families were buried in the region in a mass grave, as claimed by their relatives. 

The Forensic Medicine Institute conducted a number of tests to determine the age of the bones, which were discovered 20 centimeters beneath the ground, who they belonged to and how long they had been underground. 

Investigation revealed that 11 people, including seven children, were buried in the grave more than 50 years ago. Imprints with names of the victims were also recovered from the area, alongside numerous bullet cartridges and empty bullet casings which matched the army ammunition used at the time of the massacre, the lawyer of the Canan and Baran families, Cihan Söylemez, said.

DNA samples were also collected from the families of the victims which matched the DNA of the bones found inside the mass grave. 

"The forensic excavations in April 2015 revealed a second result, which is the fact that members of...