Turkey’s Forensic Medicine Institute recently announced that the 34 skulls found in a mass grave in Diyarbakır were at least a hundred years old, according to a March 1 article in bianet news.

The excavation was carried out right next to a building that had been used as headquarters of the clandestine gendarmerie's intelligence and counterterrorism unit JITEM in the 1990s. Excavations in the quarter of Saraykapi had started on 11 January in the neighbourhood of the Diyarbakir Closed Prison and the Courthouse.

The Forensic Medicine Institute announced in a statement, "The determined morphological changes suggest that the bones were lying in the earth for at least one hundred years. One part of the bones belongs to animals. Regarding the human bones no findings were revealed that would clarify the reason of death".

It was also stated that "the bone tissue did not show any probable injuries caused by firearms, cutting or crushing devices or any explosions".

Prof Umit Bicer, Chairman of the Forensic Medicine Experts Association, argued the contrary, "We know that the person's sex and age can be estimated if the skulls were preserved as a whole. Yet, it was announced that not even that was done".

Writer Migirdic Margosyan who is conducting studies about the history of Diyarbakır said that a hundred years ago Armenians lived in this area which is known as "Ickale". "In the 1940s, there were government buildings like the courthouse in the Ickale area", Margosyan indicated.