As the Unconditional Justice Movement, we continue the weekly issues we focus on.
- This week we brought up Turkey’s sad fact about “Enforced Disappearance Cases”.
- Enforced disappearance of persons was used as a systematic state violence after the September 12 coup and the state of emergency in the 90s of Turkey.This sad practice, which was identified with the white Toros cars in the 90’s, still frequently encountered during and after the state of emergency, which was declared in 2016.
- Not receiving the missing applications of families, the Ministry of Justice leaves the questions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations (UN) unanswered by the failure to initiate criminal investigations or to conclude them with non-prosecution. It clearly shows that these abductions were carried out systematically by the state. Persons are left outside the protection of the law by forcible disappearance by government officials or third parties within the scope of the government’s assignment, support or knowledge.
- Enforced disappearance hurts both the disappeared and their families. . Some families have reached the information that their relatives who were forcibly disappeared were buried in the cemetery for a while after being detained. It was systematically denied by the security forces that Hayrettin Eren, a member of Dev-Genc, who was detained on November 21, 1980, was taken into custody after the enforced disappearance. . Saturday Mothers / People, including Hayrettin Eren’s family, have been carrying out their activities since 27 May 1995 to learn about the fate of the relatives of the disappeared. No information has been received from Yusuf Bilge Tunç, one of the persons dismissed by the statutory decree, since 6 August 2019 and from Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit, the former reporter of the Prime Ministry, since 29 December 2020. Gökhan Güneş, who was kidnapped in front of his workplace on January 20, 2021, was released 6 days later and stated that he was subjected to torture in his statement.
- From the testimony of persons who were forcibly disappeared and later released, they were prevented from understanding their whereabouts by wearing an object such as a sack / bag on their head, and they were taken to the secret detention and torture centers where they were taken very seriously, including severe beatings, threats, insults, stripping naked, sexual harassment and even sexual abuse we know that they were subjected to torture. Kurt v. Turkey, Appl. No. 15/1997/799/1002, Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights, 25 May 1998 /disappeared persons. In the decision, inhuman treatment was defined as follows. “It has been observed that the uncertainty, suspicion and anxiety experienced by the applicant (the mother of the disappeared person) continuously and uninterruptedly caused serious mental pain and suffering in him”.
- The UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of Everyone from Enforced Disappearance on 20 December 2006 and the Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010. Turkey still has not sign the Convention, therefore, there is no obligation to comply with the contract. However, Turkey has not to be party to this convention, it does not remove its responsibility against enforced disappearances and the obligation to prevent impunity. Turkey must fulfill its obligation of negative and positive liabilities of individuals in terms of protecting their rights arising from international conventions and the constitution.
We underline that there is no timeout for the perpetrators of enforced disappearance, which is on the list of crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute, which is the founding agreement of the International Criminal Court, and which the state has applied to intimidate opposition. As the Unconditional Justice Movement, we loudly express our demand for unconditional justice in the just struggle of the families of the forcibly disappeared people.