Human Rights Association (IHD) Amed (Diyarbakır), Êlih (Batman), Colemêrg (Hakkari) and Izmir branches and relatives of the disappeared continued their protests with the slogan "Let the disappeared be found and their perpetrators be tried".

 

AMED

 

In this week's demonstration, the story of Ender Toğcu, who was not heard from after he went to the hospital as a companion for his wife in Tetwan (Tatvan) district of Bedlîs (Bitlis) on 29 November 1994, was read.

 

Ender Toğcu went missing on 29 November 1994. In the evening of the same day, police officers raided his family's house, beat Ender Toğcu's father and brother, and left, saying that Ender Toğcu was with them and that they would return him dead in three days. Afterwards, plainclothes police officers detained Ender Toğcu's older brother and tortured him for three days, asking him where his brother was. The older brother Ali Toğcu said that he heard his brother Ender Toğcu's screams while he was in custody.

 

The father, Hüseyin Toğcu, applied to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the State Security Court every month after his son's disappearance, but he was given answers that his son had not been detained and that there was no record of his detention. Again, his brother applied verbally to the Çarşı Police Station. However, despite all attempts and the passage of 30 years, there has been no news about the fate of Ender Toğcu.

 

ÊLIH

 

In this week's demonstration, the fate of Nazım Gülmez, who was detained by soldiers in Taştêk village of Xozat (Hozat) district of Dêrsim province on 15 October 1994 and was never heard from again, was asked.

 

On 13 October 1994, soldiers from Bolu Commando Brigade raided the village during a military operation in Ali Boğazı region. The village headman and a villager were detained by the soldiers. The villagers were released in the evening. Two days after this raid, the same soldiers came to the village again at noon on 15 October, searched the village and then set fire to the houses and burnt them down. Soldiers participating in the operation took Nazım Gülmez, a married man and father of 9 children, from his house to guide them in the field. Nazım Gülmez was forcibly taken away by the soldiers in front of the village headman and all the villagers. No news was heard from him after that day.

 

One month after the incident, Gülmez's wife Garip Gülmez asked the major in Xozat about the fate of her husband. The major gave her the following reply: 'We released them after holding them for a while, now we are looking for him'. Garip Gülmez applied to the Hozat Prosecutor's Office. As a result of this application, the Hozat Prosecutor's Office issued a decision of non-jurisdiction. Upon the decision of non-jurisdiction, the Gülmez family applied to the Elazığ Military Prosecutor's Office. Unable to finalise the file, the Elazığ Military Prosecutor's Office informed the family that the file had been sent to the Malatya State Security Court Prosecutor's Office. The Malatya Prosecutor's Office sent the file back to the Hozat Public Prosecutor's Office on the grounds that it did not have jurisdiction over the case. The family took the case to the ECHR through their lawyers on 26 March 2016. The ECHR declared the application inadmissible on the grounds that the 6-month time limit had not been met.

 

COLEMÊRG

 

This week's demonstration was organised for Hasan Ateş, who was murdered in Marufan village in Çelê (Çukurca) district of Çelê (Çukurca) in Colemêrg province in 1994, after being detained by soldiers in a raid on his house when he refused to accept the imposition of being a spy.

 

In May 1994, an operation was carried out in Hasan Ateş's village when he was only 3 months married. While the villagers gathered in the village square, Hasan Ateş and some other villagers were tortured and forced barefoot into a military vehicle. Hasan Ateş and his neighbours were tortured in the vehicle for a while and then detained in front of all the people and their relatives. Although the family members immediately applied to the Çukurca district gendarmerie station to ask about the fate of the detainees, they received the answer 'no such operation was carried out'.

 

After a while, two lifeless male bodies were found in an area close to the Serê Sêvê Police Station in Çelê, covered with stones. Hasan Ateş and Bedel Özkan had been severely tortured. There were signs of electric current on their ankles and wrists. Their lifeless bodies were taken to their villages and buried. Hasan Ateş's family immediately applied to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor. Although there were witness statements that Hasan Ateş was detained in front of all villagers, the detention was denied.

 

IZMIR

 

In this week's demonstration, the fate of Hüseyin Taşkaya, who was detained and disappeared on 6 December 1993, was demanded.

 

Hüseyin Taşkaya was detained by soldiers, police and village guards from the Bucak tribe on 6 December 1993 from his uncle's house in Siverek Bağlar neighbourhood. Siverek Gendarmerie Station Commander First Lieutenant Ahmet Şentürk commanded the convoy of 30 vehicles that carried out the detention. The family applied to the gendarmerie, the police, the prosecutor's office and the governorship to ask for Hüseyin Taşkaya. Military officials said that Taşkaya had been taken away by the police shortly after his detention. The police said 'we don't have him, ask Sedat Bucak'. Sedat Bucak, a True Path Part (DYP) deputy, tribal chief and head of the village guards, said: 'Our team took him but handed him over to the state; after that we don't know anything about it, the state knows'. Siverek Chief Public Prosecutor's Office considered the detention of Hüseyin Taşkaya as an abstract allegation of the family and issued a 'non-prosecution decision' on the grounds that there was no grounds for prosecution. All the family's applications remained inconclusive. Hüseyin Taşkaya was not heard from again.

 

Despite all the applications of the family, the fate of Hüseyin Taşkaya has not been announced.