Mass Grave Uncovered in Mainly Kurdish Southeast Turkey

Turkish authorities found the remains of 23 people in a mass grave in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on the former site of military police headquarters, Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

The first remains were discovered earlier this month, during an archeological dig in Ickale, in central Diyarbakir, where ruins of an ancient palace dating back to the 13th century were being excavated.

The area had been the site of a military police headquarters until the early 2000s. The eventual aim of the excavation is to carry out restoration work and turn the place into a museum and culture spot.

Human rights activists claim the remains belong to civilian Kurds killed by security forces during 1990s.

"Skulls and other bones belonging to humans were found here ... According to what we saw they were piled up in a narrow place... They were apparently thrown there casually, without any religious ceremony," Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker told reporters earlier this week, after visiting the site.

The Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and 36 families whose relatives went missing during 1990s filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against state officials of the time and asked for DNA tests for identification.

Around 45,000 people have died since the mid-1980s when the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms for a self-ruled homeland in southeast Turkey.

Remains of 190 bodies have been found in 29 different mass graves in more than 10 provinces in southeast Turkey, according to IHD's Diyarbakir branch.

The association estimates that more than 3,000 people are buried in 224 different mass graves in the region.