The mothers of the people, Kurds who disappeared in Turkey, staged their weekly sit-in at Galatasaray Square on İstanbul’s İstiklal Avenue for the 694th time on Saturday to demand justice for their beloved ones.
The meeting of the “Saturday Mothers” at Galatasaray Square was also participated by Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a deputy of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Oya Ersoy, a deputy of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
According to a report by pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF), this week’s action was to demand justice for Hasan Gülünay, who died under police custody on July 20, 1992.
İrfan Bilgin, whose brother of Kenan Bilgin disappeared while in custody on September 12, 1994, said during his speech that “No government has heard our voice, and the files of these people cannot be closed before being resolved”.
Tanrıkulu, who also gave a speech and stated that he was in Sarajevo on July 11, 1995, a year after the Srebrenica Genocide, said that the families there were carrying out a struggle similar to that carried out by the Saturday Mothers.
CHP deputy Tanrıkulu reminded that Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül were also at the Srebrenica massacre memorial and stated that “Could you make the speech you made there to these mothers here?”
According to the report, HDP deputy Ersoy read this week’s statement and told the story of Hasan Gülünay.
Gülünay lived in the same neighbourhood in İstanbul as Ali Ekber Atmaca, who was murdered under torture in Artvin Province Gendarmerie Regiment Command in May of 1992. Hasan Gülünay’s name came out during torture which is why the father of four, aged 32, was on police records.
Oya said that “Hasan Gülünay had told his wife that he was being followed for some time by police officers. On July 20, 1992 he left his house in Tarabya to go to work and never returned. The prosecutor’s office and the İstanbul Security Department said that there was no record of Hasan Gülünay being in police custody.
However a senior security official related to Gülünay’s family said that he had been informed that Gülünay had been taken into custody after the injuries he suffered while under torture, had healed. This information was made public.
At that point an undisclosed witness said he had been in the interrogation at the Istanbul Security Department at the same time as Gülünay and heard his shouting: “I am Hasan Gülünay they are trying to disappear me in custody”.
After these two statements were shared with the public, the family of Gülünay and the witness began being threatened by the police.
On April 21, 2016 the Constitutional Court ruled that “the investigation related to the right to life was violated.” However, the court also stated that the case of Hasan Gülünay would be closed due to time limitation.
Ersoy said that “The family of Hasan Gülünay and the society has the right to know the truth about the disappearance of Hasan while he was in custody and this right is not subject to the statute of limitation. This case will not be closed for us until a trial process in accordance to domestic law and international law is held.”
Meanwhile, Diyarbakır branch of Human Rights Association (İHD) and the relatives of the disappeared people staged their weekly sit-in for the 492nd time on Saturday. The photos of the disappeared were lied on the ground around participants who this week demanded to know the fate of Ebubekir Aras, who was taken into custody in Cizre (Şırnak), and never seen again.
İHD Diyarbakır Branch chair, Abdullah Zeytun, recalled the thousands of unidentified murders committed in the Kurdish region and said that “These murders were committed by state forces and paramilitary forces. At the time we learned they were carried out by the forces called JİTEM. These forces have yet to be brought to justice. None of the murders committed in the ’90s was accounted for”.
Following Zeytun, Orhan Örhan, member of the İHD’s Diyarbakır Branch Commission for the Disappeared, told the story of Ebubekir Aras. On July 13, 1994 at 5 am, Aras who was working as watchman at a truck garage was taken into custody during a raid by security forces. That same day, another five people were taken into custody at different addresses.
A week later, everyone except Ebubekir Aras was released. Aras’ brother, Abdurrahman, went to Cizre District Police Department to ask about his brother. The police officer in charge told Abdurrahman Aras that in fact Ebubekir Aras had been released the same evening of the day of his arrest.
Ebubekir’s brother Abdurrahman Aras then told of the five people who were detained on the same day and released a week later. They said they were going to be tortured with electricity, but as Ebubekir Aras died under torture, police decided to stop.
When Aras told the Cizre District Security Directorate about the witnesses, he was told once again that his brother was alive and that he should wait.
Cizre District Police Department issued a document to Abdurrahman about his brother’s detention and release. The date of detention is given as July 17, 1994 at 5 am. The release date is given as the same day at 8.30 pm.
The signature was in fact a fingerprint as Ebubekir Aras could not read nor write, which lead to the conclusion of his family that facts don’t add up and truth is not told. Despite all search and efforts, Ebubekir Aras’ fate remains unknown.
The post Turkey’s Saturday Mothers meet for 649th time to demand justice for their disappeared children appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/turkeys-saturday-mothers-meet-for-649th-time-to-demand-justice-for-their-disappeared-children/
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