Musa Çitil, deputy commander-in-chief of Gendarme (military police), is said to have been responsible for the killing of 13 villagers in Dêrika Çiyayê Mazî (Derik/Mardin province) in 1993 and 1994. While the relatives of the victims accused Çitil of this, in May 2014, a Turkish court acquitted Çitil in the first instance. An appeal court also upheld the acquittal on 2 June 2015. The relatives of the victims then went to the Turkish Constitutional Court, which now also acquitted the suspect.

There is no evidence that Çitil has violated the “right to life” or the “prohibition of maltreatment”, the Constitutional Court ruled. The court justified the judgment also with the fact that the relatives had not reported missing persons after the disappearance of the victims at the time.

The Court said that there was a missing person report only in the case of one victim, which was recorded on January 1, 2010. The acquittal for the suspected war criminal was unanimous by the judges of the Constitutional Court.

The Court also ruled for the costs of the proceedings to be borne by relatives of the victims.

"War crimes against Kurds remain unpunished"

Trial attorney Erdal Kuzu said that this judgment is another example of the general impunity in Turkey for crimes against the Kurdish population. However, the relatives of the victims are willing to pursue the case further, he said and added that they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In Derik district of Mardin, villagers Seydoş Çeviren, Yusuf Çeviren, Abide Çeviren, Ahmet Çeviren, Ramazan Çeviren, Mehmet Nejat Arıs, Piro Ay, Vejdin Avcıl, Mehmet Erek, Ramazan Erek, Ahmet Erek, Mustafa Aydin and Mehmet Faysal Ötün fell victim to “unidentified murders” in 1993 and 1994.

Conversely, Citil, who has been held responsible for these disappearances, was promoted to deputy general commander of Gendarme by the regional command for the Diyarbakir region on July 22, 2017, before the trial was closed.