The Human Rights Association (IHD) Dersim branch held a statement at Seyit Rıza Square as part of the International Week of Struggle Against Enforced Disappearances, running from 17 to 31 May.

At the event, which was attended by members of the Dersim Labor and Democracy Platform and many others, photos of individuals who were forcibly disappeared while in custody were displayed.

IHD Branch co-chair Özgür Ateş emphasized the importance of the Week of the Disappeared, while co-chair Nurşat Yeşil called for clarification of the fate of Hatun, Yeter, Elif Işık, Gülizar, and her 3-year-old daughter Dilek Serin, who disappeared in 1994 in the village of Vartinik, as well as Gülistan Doku, who has been missing since 2020.

Nurşat Yeşil listed their demands as follows:

"-The fate of those disappeared in custody must be revealed

-The perpetrators must be prosecuted

-Enforced disappearance should be classified as a crime against humanity in the Penal Code

-Impunity must end

-Turkey must sign the UN Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance

-The ban on Galatasaray Square must be lifted"

Nurşat Yeşil said that these demands are possible only through lasting peace, adding: "The process prompted by the decisions to lay down arms by the PKK must be accompanied by truth, confrontation, and justice (...) Peace should not be sacrificed for political calculations; a strong will must be shown for a just and lasting peace."

The statement concluded with a sit-in.