Saturday Mothers/People gathered at Galatasaray Square for the 1025th time to demand the fate of their relatives who were disappeared and murdered under custody and to demand the prosecution of the perpetrators. During the protest, carnations and photographs of the disappeared people were carried. Saturday Mothers/People demanded the perpetrators of Ali Tekdağ, who was kidnapped and murdered 33 years ago in Amed (Diyarbakır). The protest was attended by Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan and Istanbul MP Kezban Konukçu, Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) Istanbul MP Ahmet Şık, as well as many rights defenders.Human Rights Association (İHD) Elîh (Batman) Branch Chair Sibel Çapraz read the statement and began by saying that their demands for truth and justice have not been met for 30 years.

 

ABDUCTION OF ALİ TEKDAĞ

 

Stating that Ali Tekdağ is the father of seven children and ran a pastry shop in Rezan (Bağlar) district of Amed, Çapraz said that Tekdağ was active in the People's Labor Party (HEP) at the time and had been detained and tortured dozens of times before his murder. Explaining the process leading up to Çapraz's murder, “On November 3, 1991, Ali Tekdağ left the house with his wife. When they came to the vicinity of Dağkapı Şekerbank to do some shopping, people in civilian clothes, armed with long-barreled guns and walkie-talkies forced Tekdağ into a white minibus and took him away,” he said. 

 

'MURDERED BY GUNFIRE AFTER TORTURE' CONFESSION

 

Emphasizing that after Tekdağ's abduction, all attempts by his family and İHD were fruitless, Çapraz said that Tekdağ was denied to have been detained at the time. Çapraz continued as follows: “However, a person named S.D. stated that he saw Ali Tekdağ 45 days after his detention at the Diyarbakır Riot Police Headquarters and that he shouted, 'Tell my family that they are going to massacre me. On January 21, 1996, Evrensel Newspaper published a news article titled 'Confessions of a Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-terror Unit (JİTEM) Officer' in which it was reported that Ali Tekdağ was killed after 120 days of severe torture by being shot with a gun, and that after his death he was poured with gasoline to prevent him from being recognized, burned and buried in a creek bed on the Silvan-Diyarbakır highway.”

 

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS DECISION 

 

Noting that the 7 investigations opened as a result of the Tekdağ family's applications after these developments were also inconclusive, “Hatice Tekdağ then applied to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court convicted Turkey of violating Ali Tekdağ's right to life due to the incomplete and inadequate investigations into his disappearance in detention,” Çapraz said. 

 

'WE WILL NOT GIVE UP DEMANDING JUSTICE'

 

Çapraz demanded that the perpetrators of Tekdağ's disappearance be exposed and said: “On the 30th anniversary of his disappearance, we demand an investigation and prosecution that will uncover the truth about Ali Tekdağ's disappearance in detention and that will bring the perpetrators and those responsible for the crime to trial and punish them. No matter how many years pass; we will not stop demanding justice for Ali Tekdağ, for all our disappeared, and reminding the state that it has to act within universal legal norms.”