MEDINE MAMEDOĞLU

Mardin - In Turkey, thousands of people were forcibly disappeared, killed by unknown assailants, subjected to torture and oppression and their villages were burned down in the 1990s. 1,901 people were killed in Turkey between 1990 and 2011, according to reports. The relatives of the forcibly disappeared persons have struggled to find their loved ones.

80-year-old Fatma Atuğ is one of these people looking for their forcibly disappeared relatives. Her two brothers and husband were killed by unknown assailants. She has looked for the bones of her relatives for years and all she wants is to know what happened to her relatives before she dies.

They were forcibly disappeared

On April 14, 1995, soldiers and village guards raided the houses of Şükrü Demir, Abdulkadir Demir, Mehmet Emin Atuğ and Hizni Birmen from the same family in the Budaklı (Kerşafe) village of Mardin’s Midyat district. They were tortured and taken into custody by the soldiers and village guards. The village guards threatened the villagers saying, “We will take dead bodies from here truck by truck”. The police station commander then denied the detention of four persons. “They joined the PKK, they are not here,” the commander told the family members. The family members haven’t received any news from their relatives since then. In 2003, the family members filed a criminal complaint to learn what had happened to their relatives.

The court closed the case file saying “people are alive”

Family members filed a criminal complaint to demand the Public Prosecutor of Midyat to investigate where their relatives are and what happened to them. After five years, the Public Prosecutor of Midyat closed the case file saying;

“According to the civil registry extract of Şakir Demir, Abdülkadir Demir and Hizni Bilmen, who were allegedly missing and killed, it is understood that they are adult and alive, they haven’t been reported missing or killed until now, the bodies and graves of the persons allegedly being killed haven’t been found so there is no evidence showing that Mehmet Emin Atuğ, Şakir Demir, Abdülkadir Demir, Hizni Bilmen had been killed. For these reasons, there is no need for any investigation to be carried out.”

The court ruled to close the case file for not finding the bodies and graves of the persons in question. The Mardin High Criminal Court approved the court ruling.

“They dragged them and forcibly put them in a vehicle”

Fatma Atuğ told us that her brothers and husband had been summoned to the police station one day before the incident. The four persons were released after being questioned at the police station. Fatma Atuğ said that soldiers raided their house the next day in the morning;

“I am now 80 years old but I have never forgotten that day. On that day, they raided our house and I opened the door. One of the village guards told us, “We will take dead bodies from here truck by truck.” The soldiers and village guards stepped on their backs and took them away. In those years, everyone was in fear because the detained people never came back. I prayed when they were detained and released one day before. But they were detained on that day and I haven’t seen them since then. They dragged them and forcibly put them in a vehicle.”

Despite her age, all Fatma Atuğ wants is to find the graves of her husband and brothers. “I am now 80 years old and I hold on to life to find their bones. I don’t want to die without learning what happened to them. My children grew up without their father. Now, I tell my grandchildren what happened on that day. They (Turkish state) should tell us what they (soldiers, village guards) had done to them and what happened to them.”