Menal Konak’s brother, Mahmut, was 18 when he left to join the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria in 2014. He died six years ago but she only found out this week.
The Turkish authorities have now begun publishing lists of “martyrs” to the PKK cause, after parliament this month passed a law to reintegrate Kurdish fighters into civilian life.
“He (Mahmut) fell in 2020. We’re only finding out now. We spoke to him just once, in 2017. We thought he was alive,” Konak, 31 said tearfully, her face etched with grief.
