No more enforced disappearances
No more enforced disappearances
This week is "International Week against Enforced Disappearances". In Turkey it kicked off with a meeting in Istanbul, organised by the families of the disappeared. In a joint statement issued by IHD (Association of Human Rights), YAKAY-DER (Association for Solidarity and Support of Relatives of Disappeared People) and the International Committee against Enforced Disappearances (ICAD), the families say "we are here for our spouses, our fathers, our siblings and our mothers who were burned in heating boilers and thrown from helicopters and buried in mass graves. We are here to demand the prosecution of the defendants of the Ergenekon case, perpetrators form the military, politicians and bureaucrats for 'crimes against humanity'".
The statement continues underlining that "the disappearances of our relatives were enforced by the co-operation and the secretiveness of the 'gangs of the deep state' of the General Staff, who have blood on their hands, the political powers, politicians from the Ministry, members of the judiciary who guided the oppressive state and the media that covered up the truth".
The families noticed that the names of the responsible for the disappearance of hundreds of people are mentioned in the Ergenekon indictment, in the files at the European Court of Human Rights, in the witnesses' statements and in the statements of the task forces of deceased members of the military, the intelligence and JÝTEM (the illegal Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit). Despite the availability of these information no action has been taken by the judiciary. Among the initiatives organised for the week, tomorrow there will be a visit to the graves of two of the disappeared, Hasan Ocak and Ridvan Karakoç. On 25 May there will be a visit to Altinþehir graveyard followed by a torchlight procession from the IHD Istanbul Branch to Tunel Square.
Hasan Ocak was detained on March 21, 1995. His body was found fifty-five days later, dump in a cemetery. He died as a result of torture. Ridvan Karakoç also disappeared in that period. He too was found dead. He too had been tortured.
The statement continues underlining that "the disappearances of our relatives were enforced by the co-operation and the secretiveness of the 'gangs of the deep state' of the General Staff, who have blood on their hands, the political powers, politicians from the Ministry, members of the judiciary who guided the oppressive state and the media that covered up the truth".
The families noticed that the names of the responsible for the disappearance of hundreds of people are mentioned in the Ergenekon indictment, in the files at the European Court of Human Rights, in the witnesses' statements and in the statements of the task forces of deceased members of the military, the intelligence and JÝTEM (the illegal Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit). Despite the availability of these information no action has been taken by the judiciary. Among the initiatives organised for the week, tomorrow there will be a visit to the graves of two of the disappeared, Hasan Ocak and Ridvan Karakoç. On 25 May there will be a visit to Altinþehir graveyard followed by a torchlight procession from the IHD Istanbul Branch to Tunel Square.
Hasan Ocak was detained on March 21, 1995. His body was found fifty-five days later, dump in a cemetery. He died as a result of torture. Ridvan Karakoç also disappeared in that period. He too was found dead. He too had been tortured.
