"Soldiers Raided Village, Burnt Down Houses, Took Our Relatives"

Relatives of Casım Çelik, Yusuf Çelik, Mihraç Çelik, Hurşit Taşkın, Kemal İzci, Abdülaziz İnan, Salih Şengül, Naci Şengül, Sıdık Şengül, Cabbar Selvi, Reşit Selvi and Hayrettin Öztürk demand to know where their bodies are.

On 24 July 1994, these 14 people disappeared, one in the village of Ormancık in the district of Şemdinli, Hakkari, one on a village road, and 12 in detention.

Investigation by prosecution

Recently, an anonymous letter was sent to the Şemdinli prosecution by someone claiming to have done his military service at the time. The letter says that the villagers, twelve of them village guards, were buried on military ground. A plan was attached to the letter.

Following a criminal complaint by relatives of the disappeared and by the Human Rights Association  (İHD), the prosecution has carried out excavations.

The excavations at Şemdinli's Derecik Batallion ground, where the villagers were taken 15 years ago, have found bones and waste from 1994. While one bone belonged to an animal, two more bones have been sent for forensic investigation.

Mehmet Ekinci, lawyer for relatives of the disappeared, has called for the letter writer to be identified and used as a secret witness in order to locate the graves more precisely.

Relatives of the disappeared said that their ID cards were burnt that day and that Şemdinli Derecik Internal Security Batallion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Ali Çamurcu told them, "You are all terrorists, go to Iraq and Iran, if you return to Turkey, I will drench you in petrol and burn you." The villagers were not allowed to go to Şemdinli district town.

Tomorrow, 24 July, is the anniversary of the disappearances. Those who survived remember th events thus:

Six detained before reaching village

Emrullah Öztürk (brother of Hayrettin Öztürk, DTP Şemdinli district chair): On 23 July 1994, the PKK and the army fought near the Ormancık village. One day later, ten people, among them my brother, drove frmo Şemdinli to the village. At the Sılo summer meadow, where there had been fighting, they were stopped by soldiers. Six people were taken into detention, my brother Hayrettin Öztürk and Casım Çelik, Hurşit Taşkın, Abdulaziz İnan, Sıdık Şengil and Mirhaç Çelik. Four people were released, but the vehicle was burnt down. After the four villagers had reached the village, soldiers raided the village and burnt down houses.

"They took my baby and my husband"

Emine Çelik (wife of Yusuf Çelik): At that time I did not know any Turkish. Suddenly soldiers raided the village and took us all out of our houses. They separated the women and men. They constantly shouted at us. Because I did not know Turkish, I did not know what they wanted. At that time there was a Lieutenant Colonel Ali. I was pregnant at the time. Lieutenant Colonel Ali beat me without mercy, and I lost my baby. I managed to run to where the women were being kept. At the same time, our houses were being burnt down. Our stables were burnt down with the animals still inside. The horses were shot dead. Then I heard that they had taken six more men from the village, including my husband. I never heard from my husband again. I will never forget that day of brutality. They took my unborn baby and my husband from me. Our people have been missing for 15 years and we want to know what happened to them. If the authorities today are not the friends of then commander Ali Çamucu, they should come and solve the case.

Torture lasted all day

Abubekir Selvi (son of Cabbar Selvi, brother of Reşit Selvi): The took us men to a place away from the women and told us to take our clothes of. They started beating us all. They collected all our ID cards and burnt them. They carried out all kinds of torture imaginable on the village square. They constantly shot into the air, the shooting never stopped. They cooled the heated barrels on our backs. I still have marks on my back from that day. Then they took a villager called Kerem İnan a bit further away and shot him dead. Then they took seven more people away from us, including my father and my brother. The torture continued all day. Among the soldiers raiding the village there was one soldier who spoke to us in Kurdish secretly. He had withdrawn into a corner and was crying at what they were doing to us. At one point he approached us and said, "Be careful, when they withdraw, they will shoot grenades at the village." When the soldiers left in the evening, they started bombing the village. We hid under rocks and tried to protect ourselves.

One villager burnt to death

İsmet Taşkın (Hurşit Taşkın's brother): One of our villagers tried to stop Lieutenant Colonel Ali's torture by holding out a holy Qur'an. But Lieutenant Colonel Ali insulted him and beat him badly. After they bombed our village, they threw Ayşir Seçkin, one of the seven people they had taken from the village, into hay and set fire to him. The other six and the first six they had taken were brought to the Derecik Batallion. We never heard from them again.

Demand for justice

Meryem Çelik (wife of Casim Çelik): I was in Şemdinli district town at the time, and my children were in the village. I found out later that they had taken my husband. All the villagers, including my children, crossed the border into Iraq. After a journey of seven days and seven nights, they reached the Etruş camp in Northern Iraq. It took me five months to get there and see my children again. Until 1997, we waited there for my husband and the other detained villagers to return. They didn't. In order to find out about their fate, we returned to Turkey and settled in Şemdinli. We went to court, but when nothing was found, we went to the European Court of Human Rights. We are still waiting for the result. (EÇ/TK/AG)

*This article was written by Erkan Çapraz and appeared in the Yüksekova news. Some information was added by bianet.