Prosecution Postpones Search for Remains of "Lost Persons" In Silopi

Prosecutor's office in Silopi arbitrarily postpones an excavation at BOTAŞ land, which is a suspected burial place of the extra-judicial killings committed in the 1990s.

Tolga Korkut

An expected dig to find the remains of those "lost" in the past has been postponed by the prosecutor's office in Silopi, in southeastern Turkey.

Cause of the postponement is announced as alleged security problems, probable provocations and the media's attention, Şırnak Bar Association chair Nuşirevan Elçi told bianet.

Elçi contests those reasons. "The area concerned is a part of natural gas firm BOTAŞ's land and a military platoon is situated there. Security concerns are unfounded."

Prosecutors have investigated the scene on February 19th and decided for excavation. Following the postponement, no specific date has been announced yet. Elçi hopes that it would realize soon as a "negative impression would settle as time gets by". He's determined to continue efforts to find the remains of the lost persons in order to "make sure the state faces extra-judicial activities of the past".

Relatives of more than 70 people -who were "lost" during the 1990s- living around the Silopi area are looking for remedies. Testimonies gathered by the Bar Association include information, which hints that there are graves in the land in question. Former PKK militant and illegal Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit gunman Abdülkadir Aygan, confessed on many occasions that several victims of extra-judicial killings were buried at that point.

Furthermore, Democratic Society Party (DTP) MP Selahattin Demirtaş suggests that an investigation at the cemetery of unidentified persons in Silopi would reveal remains of those "lost".(TK/AGÜ)