Human rights group demands an end to abductions in Turkey

* Photo: İHD

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Human Rights Association (İHD) held a statement for the press today (January 27) and demanded that two missing citizens, Yusuf Bilge Tunç and Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit, be found as soon as possible.

The association has also expressed its request for "an effective investigation against the ones who subjected the kidnapped and tortured people to this inhuman treatment and penalization of the perpetrators."

He has been missing since December

The family of Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit applied to the İHD Central Office on January 6, 2021. According to the İHD, the family said that "Küçüközyiğit was living in Ankara and they were in contact with him during the day; he would also come to Kocaeli to visit his family; in their phone call on December 29, 2020, he said that he would come to Kocaeli for the New Year's, but he did not; they have been unable to reach him since then."

The İHD has also shared the following account of the family:

"According to the camera records of the office where Küçüközyiğit works, he left the office on December 29, 2020 at 5.23 p.m.; according to the same camera records, there were also three others suspected by the family to follow Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit while he was entering the office. His vehicle with the license plate 34 FNF 28 was not in its place. The family does not know whether he got on his vehicle on the day when he got missing."

The family has also indicated that they applied to the Kocaeli Bekirpaşa Police Station on December 31, 2020 and reported Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit missing, applied to the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER) and filed a criminal complaint by appealing to the prosecutor's office. The family is concerned that he might be kidnapped.

Fate and whereabouts unknown for six months

According to the statement of the İHD, the fate and whereabouts of Yusuf Bilge Tunç have also been unknown for months.

In its statement about Tunç, the İHD has briefly said: "In 2019, Salim Zeybek, Gökhan Türkmen, Erkan Irmak, Yasin Ugan, Özgür Kaya and Mustafa Yılmaz were abducted and detained for 7 months. In 2020, Gökhan Türkmen and Yasin Ugan announced at the hearings of their trials that they had been kidnapped and tortured for 7 months. But, no effective investigation was conducted into the incident in spite of this statement.

"Allegedly enforced disappeared on August 6, 2020, around a month after these persons were found, Yusuf Bilge Tunç's fate and whereabouts have still been unknown despite all applications and efforts."

CLICK - Güneş tells what happened during his six-day abduction

Most recently, a 23-year-old worker, Gökhan Güneş, was forced to get in a car in İkitelli, İstanbul on January 20. His fate and whereabouts of Gökhan Güneş were unknown for six days.

He then returned to his family's house in the same town in Başakşehir in the morning on January 26. Making a statement later in the day, he said that he was detained for 6 days and systematically tortured. (AS/SD)