HDP brings missing people to Parliamentary agenda
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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ankara MP Filiz Kerestecioğlu has submitted a Parliamentary question about the missing citizens in Turkey whose fate and whereabouts have been unknown for months and about whom there have been no effective investigations.
Addressing her question to Vice President Fuat Oktay, Kerestecioğlu has said, "The citizens who lost their relatives in the enforced disappearances and unsolved murders of the 90s have been asking the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones for decades. Not only are the families given an answer, their right to protest and demonstration is restricted as well."
Kerestecioğlu has raised concerns that the last years have seen new abductions and missing people in Turkey, underlining that no effective investigation is being carried out to find these missing people.
In her Parliamentary question, she has reminded Vice President Oktay of how Gülistan Doku, Hürmüz Diril, Mehmet Bal, Yusuf Bilge Tunç and Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit have been missing for a long time:
Gülistan Doku
"The fate and whereabouts of Gülistan Doku, a student of Munzur University, have been unknown since January 5, 2020.
"As her phone gave a signal at the Uzunçayır Dam Lake for the last time, the Governor's Office announced that Gülistan Doku jumped in the dam and committed suicide. The lake was completely drained, but no traces of Doku were encountered during the search there.
"Expressing the opinion that Doku had committed suicide, the Governor's Office and the Security Directorate did not detain Zainal Abarakov, the chief suspect who is making conflicting statements, and did not carry out an effective investigation against him.
"Even though Abarakov's father, police officer Engin Y. was suspended because of sharing Gülistan Doku's private information, no action was taken against Abarakov or Engin Y. about the disappearance of Doku. Even though the evidence shows the opposite, her case is considered to be suicide and her fate and whereabouts are not inquired."
Hürmüz Diril
"Living in Şırnak's Beytüşşebap and gone missing with her wife Şimuni Diril on January 8, 2020, Hürmüz Diril's fate and whereabouts have been unknown since then while the dead body of Şimuni Diril was found 70 days later. While it was detected in the HTS records that he met them before going missing, Apro Diril was arrested only 1.5 years later, in June 2021.
"But Hürmüz Diril has still not been found."
Mehmet Bal
Going missing in İstanbul, where he came from Batman province to visit his son in the Silivri Prison, Mehmet Bal was last seen while he was embarking on the Eminönü-Kadıköy ferry on January 24, 2020; however, there is no footage showing that he got off the ferry.
"The relatives of Bal said that they submitted a petition to report him missing, but they were kicked out of the Gayrettepe Police Station, they were insulted by the law enforcement officers and met with their mocking attitude. Bal's lawyers say that the camera footage and HTS records on the day of Bal's disappearance were not examined and the statement of the person named Rüstem Yıldız, who called them a month later and said that he knew where Mehmet Bal was, was not taken.
"That a citizen goes missing in public transportation of the most crowded city of Turkey shows that no citizen has the safety of life."
Yusuf Bilge Tunç
"Discharged from the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries by a Statutory Decree after the July 15 [coup attempt in 2016], Yusuf Bilge Tunç was abducted with a black transporter vehicle on August 6, 2019. Since then, his fate and whereabouts have been unknown. The camera footage was not examined, no effective investigation was carried out, the MP's Parliamentary questions were left unresponded in his case as well."
Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit
"Discharged by a Statutory Decree while he was a rapporteur at the Prime Ministry, Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit went missing after leaving his office in Ankara's Maltepe Neighborhood on December 29, 2020.
"The camera footage obtained by his daughter Nursena Küçüközyiğit showed that he was followed by three people before going missing; however, there has been no good or bad news about him."
'Are public officials involved?'
Against this background, HDP's Kerestecioğlu has underlined that no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance as per the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and demanded an urgent effective investigation.
She has then moved on to ask:
"What is the reason for not carrying out an effective investigation about the people who went missing?
"Will an investigation be launched against the Minister of Interior, who has been unable to uncover all these incidents of disappearance that have been occurring in different cities for 2 years, and against the public officials who do not fulfill their responsibilities?
"Will an action be taken against the people who have been found to be suspects in the related incidents of disappearance?
"Were public officials directly or indirectly involved in the disappearance of Gülistan Doku, Hürmüz Diril, Mehmet Bal, Yusuf Bilge Tunç and Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit?" (KÖ/SD)