The Saturday Mothers/People, who gather on Saturdays to call for justice and resolution in the cases of the hundreds of missing persons in Turkey, as well as the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD), have called on President Abdullah Gül to act in order to ensure that the investigation of the “death wells” in the southeast of Turkey be carried out without the tampering with evidence.

Gathering for the 208th time in front of the Galatasaray highschool in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, the protesters, many of whom have lost relatives who were taken into custody for political reasons and were never heard of again, have demanded an effective investigation into the potential mass graves in the area between Diyarbakır, Cizre and Silopi.

There can be no more denial

This week, theatre actress Aslı Öngören read a statement signed by the İHD’s committee against disappearance in custody, saying, “Turkey is facing the reality of death wells, mass graves and death fields. We call on those who accuse us, who are asking about the fate fo the missing persons, of a smear campaign against the state’s security forces, to talk now. What are the Ministry of Defence, the counter-guerilla, and JITEM (a clandestine gendarmerie intelligence unit) who accused us of treachery, going to say now? So JITEM was only an invented accusation? So Turkey was a state ruled by law?”

Evidence is being tampered with

Relatives of those missing say that there have been problems in the excavations of the death wells:

“There were bones found, but where are the other ones? Where are the bones belonging to the skull that was found? Who emptied the wells? Who delayed the opening of the wells? Why is a blind eye being turned to the tampering with evidence? Why is no one listening to our demand that the excavations be carried out in the presence of NGOs, and an independent forensic medical team that also includes anthropologists and archeologists?”

The movement of the Saturday Mothers started when Hasan Ocak, son of Emine Ocak, was taken into police custody on 21 March 1995. His tortured body was found in a cemetery for the poor fifty-five days later.

Attempts to join the Ergenekon trial as plaintiffs

This week, Emine Ocak was only able to say, between tears, “Give me my teacher son back.” Hasan’s  brother Hüseyin Ocak told journalists that his brother had been taken into custody shortly after 17 people had been killed in the Gazi neighbourhood of Istanbul. He demanded the prosecution of former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and others involved in extra-judicial killings.

Speaking to bianet after the protest, Hüseying Ocak said that their efforts to become third party plaintiffs in the Ergenekon trial had been unsuccessful so far. However, as the second indictment of the Ergenekon investigation also mentioned the Gazi neighbourhood events, they would renew their application.

The Ocak family has already been to the European Court of Human Rights, which decreed that Turkey did not investigate the death in a satisfactory manner. (EÖ/AG)