The Human Rights Association (IHD) Amed Branch and relatives of the disappeared organized the weekly sit-in at the Koşuyolu Park Life Memorial Monument.

It was the 494th sit-in to demand justice and truth for the disappeared people. Raci Bilici, IHD deputy co-chair, Diyarbakır Branch IHD executives, relatives of the disappeared people and human rights activists joined the action.

This week’s action was dedicated to Nihat Aydoğan, whose life tragically changed when he was taken into custody on 20 November 1994.

IHD Diyarbakır Branch President, Abdullah Zeytun, reiterated the demand for justice and the truth. "As advocates of the right to life, - he said - we know that the search for truth and justice will never stop, no matter the circumstances. The current political situation makes this search difficult, but our struggle will continue”.

What happened to Nihat Aydoğan?

Nihat Aydoğan disappeared after being taking into custody in 1994. His story was told by Hasan Yalçin, lawyer and member of the IHD Diyarbakır Branch Disappeared Commission.

Yalçın said that the soldiers and village guards under Midyat District Gendarmerie Headquarters raided Nihat Aydoğan's house on an November morning in 1994 at 5 am.

"20-30 soldiers and village guards entered the house and took Aydoğan from his bed and beat him up in front of his children. They blindfolded Aydoğan and tied his hands. Aydoğan's daughter, aged 12, became tongue-tied after witnessing this violence”.

Yalçın stated that Aydoğan was subjected to all kinds of torture and inhuman treatment in Mardin Central Gendarmerie Command for 15 days.

"After 15 days, - he said - the gendarmes made Aydoğan call his village representative and said, ‘They are leaving me, I am coming home’. However, after this call nobody heard from him. Halime Aydoğan, Nihat’s wife, getting no news from her husband went to Mardin Gendarmerie Central Command and asked about him”.

She was told that he had been released and that he had probably gone to the mountain, so she should ask there.

Halime Aydoğan wrote to the Midyat Chief Public Prosecutor's office as a last resort to know the fate of her husband. But the prosecutor's office gave no answers”.

Yalçin said that Halime Aydoğan and her young children received no help. "On the contrary, after a while, the villagers told Halime Aydoğan that she and her children should leave the village”.

She went and settled with relatives in Istanbul, but didn’t give up searching for her husband.

Aydoğan was 32 when he disappeared in custody: 24 years have passed and no news has been learned about his fate.