"Prosecutors Obliged to Investigate 11 Dead in Güçlükonak"

11 rangers were killed and their bodies burnt in 1996 and the General Staff blamed it on the PKK. Then Minister of State, Ekmen says "he knew the deep state was repsonsible but couldn't prove it". Activists urge an investigation at least after 13 years.

Tolga Korkut

Despite several attempts by rights activists, prosecutors failed to take legal action about the Güçlükonak incident, where 11 were killed and bodies burned in 1996. Then Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul branch director Ercan Kanar, activist Sanar Yurdatapan and trade unionist Münir Ceylan filed criminal complaints against military personnel and the General Staff, but never received any replies.

On the contrary, their complaint resulted in a case against them, where they were tried with "insulting the military". An Istanbul court sentenced them to 1.5 years in prison but the judgment was overturned by the Court of Cassation.

"The Turkish deep state was responsible," said Adnan Ekmen, then the Minister of State on Human Rights in a recent interview published in Aktüel weekly. He reminds us that identity cards of the deceased were in the hands of the "authorities" even before the killings, but fails to clarify who the authorities are.

"Following the incident, the General Staff had gathered journalists to the scene with helicopters and blamed it on the pro-Kurdish PKK.

"I knew that the General Staff's declaration didn't reflect the truth," Ekmen told bianet.

"But without concrete evidence to prove my point, I hesitated to bring the issue before the parliament."

Prosecutors should act on Ekmen's words, Kanar told bianet. "An investigation should compromise of all officials working in that region at that time. Relatives of the deceased should be allowed to intervene." He urges that the case should be merged with the Ergenekon case in Istanbul. "If Ergenekon is going to shed light to unlawful acts happened in eastern Turkey, all those responsible from state killings –whatever their ranks shall stand trial."

On January 15th, 1996, just a month after PKK's declaration of ceasefire, 11 former and on-duty rangers were killed and their vehicle was set fire to. The next day, the European Parliament was to question the government's reply to PKK's ceasefire. Despite unidentifiably burned bodies, military officials presented totally intact identity cards of the deceased; raising suspicion. Relatives of the deceased applied to the ECHR and Turkey was condemned at the Strasbourg court.(TK/AGÜ)