Click to read the article in Turkish
bianet's "1 May 1977 The Voices of Those Who Lost Their Loved Ones" dossier, the work on which started on Workers' Day 2020 and ended on January 26, is online as e-books in Turkish and English
CLICK- 1 May '77:The voices of those who lost their loved ones/ 1May '77 and Impunity
TIKLAYIN - 1 Mayıs '77 Kayıplarını Anlatıyor/ 1 Mayıs '77 ve Cezasızlık
In seven months and 20 days, Tuğçe Yılmaz reached out to spouses, children, siblings and friends.
Ahmet Gözükara (34, teacher), Ali Sidal (18, worker), Bayram Çıtak (37, teacher), Bayram Eyi (50, construction worker), Diran Nigiz (34, worker), Ercüment Gürkut (27, university student), Hacer İpek Saman (24, university student), Hamdi Toka (35, Seyyar Satıcı), Hasan Yıldırım (31, Uzel worker), Hikmet Özkürkçü (39, teacher), Hüseyin Kırkın (26, worker), Jale Yeşilnil (17, high school student), Kadir Balcı (35, salesperson), Kıymet Kocamış (Kadriye Duman, 25, hemşire), Kahraman Alsancak (29, Uzel worker), Kenan Çatak (30, teacher), Mahmut Atilla Özbelen (26, worker-university student), Mustafa Elmas (33, teacher), Mehmet Ali Genç (60, guard), Mürtezim Oltulu (42, worker), Nazan Ünaldı (19, university student), Nazmi Arı (26, police officer), Niyazi Darı (24, worker-university student), Ömer Narman (31, teacher), Rasim Elmas (41, cinema laborer), Sibel Açıkalın (18, university student), Ziya Baki (29, Uzel worker), |
These 27 are no longer just numbers, they join among us with their short lives, jobs, joblessness, poorness, those whom they loved, songs, books, with what their loved ones from all around the country.
Six teachers, seven students with one 11-year-old, 16 workers, three health workers, one police officer, with their deaths, show who participates in Workers' Days and the reversed reality.
Articles
In the second part entitled "1 May 1977 and Impunity," DİSK chairpersons Süleyman Çelebi, Kani Beko, and Arzu Çerkezoğlu, one of the DİSK secretary generals, Fehmi Işıklar, and Eğitim-Sen Chairperson Nejla Kurul wrote on what happened in the '77 Workers' Day and impunity.
Confederation of Public Employees' Unions (KESK) Chairperson Sami Evren brought that year to today with his article entitled "Turkey-1977 Political Panorama." And Tuğçe Yılmaz offered a view through her articles "Tracing the Trail of a Massacre of 43 Years Ago" and "The Court Years of the Untried 1 May 1977."
Contributions
| According to the autopsy report, 34 people died, the identity of one is uncertain. Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) Press, Broadcast and Public Relations Department Director Fahrettin Engin Erdoğan announced the number of deaths as 41 in 2009. |
Kate Ferguson, Amy Spangler and İdil Aydoğan translated the work into English. Editor-in-Chief Nazan Özcan contributed to the preparation of publication. Selay Dalaklı and Volga Kuşçuoğlu contributed as needed, including translating the "Foreword" and "1977-Turkey's Political Panorama."
Social media editor Yağmur Karagöz ran the social media campaign designed by PİKAN. Also, they undertook its visual application with Korcan Uğur. The book design and application is from Ali Seçkin Karayol. The cover design by Emra Senan was a great contribution. The support of the ETKİNİZ team was also valuable. Of course, none of our works coil have happened without our general coordinator Evren Gönül, office administrator Rüşen Efe and secretary Leyla İşbilir. This work could not have been realized without this solidarity. We are thankful.
Deficiencies
This is not a completed work, there are still those we have not been able to reach out to. We expect help from those who know the names below:
| Those who did/could not speak with their loved ones: Aleksandros Konteas (57, worker), Bayram Sürücü (worker), Garabet Akyan (54, worker), Hatice Altun (21), Leyla Altıparmak (19, hemşire), Meral Cebren Özkol (43, nurse), Mustafa Ertan (student), Ramazan Sarı (11, primary school student) Those only the names of whom are known: Ali Yeşilgül, Mehmet Ali Kol, Özcan Gürkan, Tevfik Beysoy, Yücel Elbistanlı The one whose name is unknown: A 35-year-old man |
They haven't stood trial
The perpetrators of the deaths and injuries were bullets and people crushing one another. No public officials stood trial. The 1st Nationalist Front Government headed by Süleyman Demirel, which was in power at the time, did not take any responsibility as well. The "case" that was not filed dropped due to the statute of limitations.
It was not only who died ended up dead; spouses, children, siblings were also affected, they could not find a job, they were afraid, they had to build a new world with completely different lives; some relatives did/could not speak even today, 44 years later, they kept their silence.
| Behiye Özkökçü: Yet my father was the culprit. They persecuted us a lot. I had clipped articles, news published in the press about my father and put them into a file. I gave it to my mother for her to hide it at the time of the '80 coup, and she told me that she hid it in the coal cellar. I think she had to burn them all, because I was not able to reach any documents afterward. |
A belated work
We are meeting with the lost ones on 1 May 1977 through their spouses, children, siblings, friends. We know, this is a belated work. Many publications were released about '77, and they were very good works.
The discussion was usually made over the "who did it" witnesses. So much so that we could not search for who the deceased were, we could not even agree on numbers, we could not talk through "impunity," we could not demand a trial.
Impunity
In our work, the narratives of the relatives and the impunity articles meet just at the titles of "right to justice", "right to know the truth", "right to compensation", "guarantee of non-recurrence," which are materialized in various human rights conventions that were signed by United Nations, the Council of Europe being in the first place and states —including Turkey— and in the texts of local and global rights organizations.
What happened on 1 May 1977 is among the "severe violations" listed by the Council of Europe as extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, neglections that risk lives and health, sexual assault and harassment, torture and inhumane or humiliating treatment by public officials, etc.
| Impunity, in the simplest terms, is the lack of the investigation of a rights violation, the finding, trial and punishment of its perpetrators, and those who were aggrieved by the crime not being compensated for it. The subject underlined here is the responsibility of the state. |
Why are we talking about 1 May 1977 now. Impunity is one of the important subject titles of bianet's reporting. Rights-based reporting is not only a reporting of rights, violations and struggle against violations that is focused on "now". Just as repeated in narrative and articles, the conclusion "if they were tried, maybe the mass killings would not have occurred" indicates the importance of "Memory" in reporting.
| Mete Çıtak: Because light is not shed on 1 May '77, we will suffer much more pain like that. And the same things will happen again. Those who are responsible for the pain inflicted on people will not be found. No one will receive punishment. If we are living in a democratic country, the opposite of this should happen. |
Tahir Elçi used to say, "In cases that drop due to the statute of limitations, families should apply to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that the state did not carry out an adequate investigation and find the perpetrators. If they cannot get a result, they should file a complaint at the ECtHR."
International documents also say that the statute of limitations cannot be the case in "severe violations"; those who are responsible should be found, the perpetrators should stand trial.
Appeals
Now, as bianet, we have two appeals.
For the loved ones: The loved ones of our losses whom we were not able to reach and who could/did not speak for this work that still waits to be completed.
For the parliament, political parties, unions, rights organizations, media, everyone: There is only one month left until May 1, 2021. Let the agenda of this Workers' Day be "impunity". Let '77 be the first step. Let Taksim be the 1 May square.
As we know, impunity makes people daring, for the record.
| Thanks to... Tuğçe Yılmaz, Sami Evren, Bülent Aydın, TÖB-DER ve Eğitim Sen öğretmenleri, sendikacılar, hak çevreleri, Süleyman Çelebi, Kani Beko, Arzu Çerkezoğlu, Fehmi Işıklar, Nejla Kurul, Emel Ataktürk, TÜSTAV, Kate Ferguson, Amy Spangler, İdil Aydoğan, Nazan Özcan, Selay Dalaklı, Volga Kuşçuoğlu, PİKAN, Yağmur Karagöz, Korcan Uğur, Ali Seçkin Karayol, Emre Senan, AB Etkiniz Programı ekibi, Evren Gönül, Ruşen Efe, Leyla İşbilir. |
*This article was adopted from Nadire Mater's "From the Foundation" article in "1 May 1977 The Voices of Those Who Lost Their Loved Ones / 1 May 1977 and Impunity.
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