ANKARA (Hetq) — Turkey’s Ministry of the Interior has not allowed the body of Armenian singer Aram Tigran to be buried in Diyarbekir as he wished before dying on August 6.
His family has decided to bury him in the Armenian graveyard in Brussels.
Inhabitants of Diyarbekir have staged a symbolic funeral instead. On August 12, the ceremony at the Armenian graveyard in Diyarbakir was attended by Metropolitan Diyarbekýr mayor Osman Baydemir.
Baydemir said that they would take soil from the graveyard in Diyarbekýr to Brussels to honor the musician’s wish.
The mayor said, “They did not allow him to come back to his soil, but with your permission, in your name, we will take from this graveyard the soil which he longed for and wanted to be buried in, and, even if it is only symbolic, take it to his grave. Thus we will try to live with the peace of mind that we at least fulfilled his wish partially.”
Baydemir expressed his sadness at not being able to bury Tigran in the city. “It is not our shame, but the shame of those who made that decision.”
