Claim for Official Supervision of Forensic Medicine Institute

The Human Rights Association (HRA) Comission against Dissapearences in Custody and relatives of the dissapeared hold putchist Kenan Evren and "the gang of five" responsible for the dissapearance of Nurettin Öztürk who had been arrested from his home in Ankara 35 years ago and was never heard of again.

IHD pointed out that till the present day no official or authority has accounted for disappearances in custody despite providing information and documents about the topic: "Until now neither a soldier, nor a police officer, nor a civilian has been prosecuted at court regarding the issue of disappearances".

Forensic Medicine Institute must be opened for supervision

The Bandista Group issued a press release at the HRA Branch in Istanbul. The spokesman, a musician who preferred not to be named, said that the authorities have always rather kept quiet concerning this situation.

The spokesman claimed that for years state institutions served the purpose of militarism. As an example the Forensic Medicine Institute was highlighted: "How many people did the Forensic Medicine Institute bring to nameless graves? How many files have been deposited for good under the desk pad just like Hasan Ocak's disappearance in custody?"

Arguing that the Forensic Medicine always passed by the justice, HRA and the 'Saturday People' emphasized that this Institute is able to alter the course of any court case and called for an "opening of the institute to independent legal and medical supervision".

Mothers of the disappeared asked the authorities about the whereabouts of Nurettin Öztürk who had been arrested on 4 April 1984 in the 236^th week of a sit-in strike and who, according to a witness, died of torture.

The witness reported: "He was brought to the cell next to me. I heard his constant groaning during the first one or two days. On the third day the groaning stopped. Soldiers came and had a look at him. Afterwards they covered his tortured body in a blanket and took him away...".

"Evren and the 'gang of five' should be trialed!"

Hatice Öztürk has been waiting for news about her son Nurettin for 25 years now. She commented: "If they have killed him they should say so. They should tell what happened to my Nurettin".

Relatives of the disappeared requested the prosecution of Kenan Evren and the 'gang of five', leading forces behind the military coup in Turkey in 1980, for mass murders happing after the coup.

Politician Mahmut Alınak, writers Erdoğan Aydın ve Yalçın Ergündoğan, lawyer Kamil Tekin Sürek, cinema artist Yusuf Çetin and dancer Zeynep Tanbay supported the event organized by the Bandista Group. (EÖ/VK)