CHP applies to Parliamentary Human Rights Commission for Şenyaşar family

* Photo: Şenyaşar family's Twitter account ("Justice" - Emine Şenyaşar and Ferit Şenyaşar posing with CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu)

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Yesterday (October 18) marked the 224th day of the Justice Watch of the Şenyaşar family in front of Urfa courthouse in southeast Turkey.

On this day, Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Mahmut Tanal brought the family's quest for justice to the Parliamentary agenda by applying to the Human Rights Investigation Commission.

Emine Şenyaşar lost her spouse and two sons in an attack by the security guards and relatives of İbrahim Halil Yıldız from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Urfa. She and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been seeking justice since then.

In his petition to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT) Human Rights Investigation Commission, main opposition CHP's Tanal has requested an on-site examination and detection of the allegations regarding the attack that happened in Urfa's Suruç on June 14, 2018.

The MP's petition has noted that the Şenyaşar family is faced with obstacles during their Justice Watch and raised concerns that the legal proceedings as to the attack are not being conducted properly.

Tanal has said that "Emine Şenyaşar's struggle for justice as a woman, mother and spouse has turned into a symbol of the injustice created by the language of politics and hand of the judiciary in Turkey."

Recalling that "Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar are battered and detained due to their justice watch," CHP MP Mahmut Tanal has also voiced their allegations that they "are not even let in the yard of the courthouse, the prosecutor does definitely not accept meeting them when they want to meet the prosecutor together with their lawyers, no fair trial is held since the ones who carried out the attack are politically protected, nearly 30 assaulters attacked the wounded again by coming inside the Suruç Public Hospital after the Şenyaşar family members were being treated at the hospital and the names of several assaulters are not even mentioned in the indictment."

Against the backdrop of these allegations, Mahmut Tanal has requested that an on-site examination be held by the Human Rights Investigation Commission in order to find out and document the allegations and details about the incident as well as the violations of rights.

What happened?

During the election campaign of ruling AKP Urfa MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Suruç, Urfa on June 14, 2018, an attack turned into an armed conflict, which claimed the lives of Yıldız's brother Mehmet Şah Yıldız, shop owner Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and his sons Adil and Celal Şenyaşar.

Having lost his father and two brothers and been wounded himself in the incident, Fadıl Şenyaşar was discharged from hospital and detained on June 17. He was then arrested and sent to prison.

Demanding justice for two sons, husband and her arrested son, Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been keeping a "justice watch" in front of the courthouse.

There has been a confidentiality order on the file of the investigation into the attack for 3 years, 3 months. The second appeal of the Şenyaşar family against the "confidentiality" order on the investigation into the second attack at the Suruç Public Hospital was rejected on April 21, 2021.

The Constitutional Court, to which the family appealed, has not yet given its decision. One of the demands raised by the family on their justice watch is the removal of this "confidentiality" order. (KÖ/SD)