A Kurdish sheikh and political leader who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful rebellion in the wake of the Turkish Republic in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakir was commemorated on the anniversary of his death.

Sheikh Said of the Naqshbandi order, the leader of the Society for Kurdish Freedom (Civata Azadiya Kurd), who led the rebellion that began in February 1925 in Diyarbakir's Dicle (Piran) district and quickly spread in the area, was captured in mid-April 1925 by Turkish troops and was sentenced to death by a special tribunal on 28 June 1926. He was hanged the next day in Diyarbakır alongside 47 of his followers. His remains were buried in an unmarked mass grave in order to prevent his memorization by Kurds.

The commemoration was held on Thursday in the square where Sheikh Said and his comrades were hanged 98 years ago. The event was attended by the officials of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the Green Left Party and the Bar Association of Diyarbakir, Gercek News reported.

Sheikh Said's grandson Kasim Firat said in his address that a 1924 law preceding the rebellion had made official the exclusion of the Kurdish people, the denial of their existence and their eradication, and that it led to the rebellion.

"Sheikh Said and his friends cried out 'We are Kurds and we exist,' then started the rebellion. We will continue to defend this cause of humanity and those who seek co-existence."

The Chair of Diyarbakir Bar Association Nahit Eren noted that they filed a request two years earlier for the identification of the victims' graves and that it was rejected.

"Sheikh Said and his friends were killed by a court order. We will continue to file objections," he said. "We will appeal, then bring the case before the Constitutional Court, and then before the European Court of Human Rights. We call for justice. We want the grave sites of the victims to be disclosed. We will continue to struggle till justice is fulfilled."