Bones of 2 Children Lost in Custody Found After 21 Years

Medical Forensic Institution has confirmed that the bones found in excavation works in Dargeçit belong to 13-year-old Davut Altınkaynak and 16-year-old Nedim Akyön.

Ayça Söylemez

Bones of 2 Children Lost in Custody Found After 21 Years

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Bones of Davut Altınkaynak (13) and Nedim Akyön (16) lost in custody in 1995 have been identified in Turkey’s southeastern Dargeçit district of Mardin province.

The report sent by İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institution to Dargeçit Public Prosecution, stated that the bones found in the excavation work carried out within the scope of investigation belong to two children.

Human Rights Association (İHD) Mardin Branch President, attorney Erdal Kuzu in his statement to bianet expressed that the institution’s report reached them on Monday (May 3).

“A separate investigation was launched into the deaths of Altınkaynak and Akyön. The prosecution will as to the deaths either prepare supplemental indictment or close the ongoing prosecution and send the files to Dargeçit case”, said Kuzu.

Defendants are not present in the hearing

Hearing of the trial as to eight people three of whom were children and one was a soldier lost in custody in 1995 in Dargeçit continued on Monday.

The attorney Kuzu noted that two defendants testified in the third hearing yet didn’t attend the hearings.

“Our demand that the defendants be brought to court and testify face to face has been turned down again. The defendants are not being brought to the hearings for ‘security reasons’”.

“I haven’t heard of JİTEM”

Of the defendants testifying, Kerim Şahin said “I remember the incident of kidnapping of the two teachers and one contractor but I don’t know about the mentioned detention procedures. I was specialized gendarmerie”.

The other defendant, Fethullah Çelik said “I didn’t work with the JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism). I haven’t heard of JİTEM”.

Kuzu expressed that many complainants can’t make it to hearing because of the curfew lasting in Nusaybin district of Mardin.

The next hearing will be held on July 14. (AS/TK)

JİTEM

Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism (JİTEM) is the controversial wing and intelligence agency of the Turkish Gendarmerie. JİTEM was active in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. After the Susurluk scandal, former prime ministers Bülent Ecevit and Mesut Yılmaz have confirmed the existence of JİTEM.

According to Murat Belge of Istanbul Bilgi University, who has reported that he was tortured in 1971 by its founder, Veli Küçük, JİTEM is an embodiment of the deep state. In other words, it is used by "the Establishment" to enforce alleged national interests.

It is also said to be the military wing of Ergenekon, an underground Turkish nationalist organization. In 2008, long-maintained official denials of JİTEM's existence started collapsing in the courts, as ex-members of Turkey's "deep state" security apparatus testify to their participation in covert and illegal activities over the last few decades as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation.

What had happened in Dargeçit?

On 29 October 1995, the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)abducted two teachers and killed them in Dargeçit. Subsequently, 57-year-old Süleyman Seyhan and a group of eight juveniles and children as his relatives and inhabitants of the village were taken into police custody between 2 and 6 November 1995.

13-year-old Hazni Doğan was released. Abdurahman Çoşkun and Mehmet Emin Aslan, both 20 years old, 18-year-old Abdullah Olcay, 14-year-old Seyhan Doğan, 13-year-old Nedim Akyol and 12-year-old Davut Altunkanak disappeared and were never heard of again.

The gendarmerie declared that the disappeared had joined the PKK. However, the decapitated burned body of Süleyman Seyhan was found in a well of a village on 3 March 1996. Two days after the body was found, Special Sergeant Bilal Batırır of the gendarmerie disappeared.

As reported by the Radikal daily, all this information was revealed in the course of an investigation carried out by Dargeçit Public Prosecutor Şükrü Arslan in 2011.

In an official report, Prosecutor Arslan alleged six soldiers of "establishing an armed organization", "homicide" and "instigation to homicide". The report was sent to the Diyarbakır Public Chief Prosecution on 17 November 2011.

Upon the testimony of a secret witness, supposedly a soldier or a village guard, the Diyarbakır Special Authority Public Prosecutor gave the order to start excavations on 17 February in order to find the bodies of seven people who disappeared.

JİTEM lost in custody dargeçit case

Ayça Söylemez

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Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Felsefe Bölümü mezunu. Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Sosyoloji bölümünde yüksek lisans yaptı. Marmara Üniversitesi İletişim Bilimleri’nde doktora yapıyor. Vatan, Akşam, HaberTürk ve Hürriyet gazetelerinin yazıişleri ve dış haberler bölümünde çalıştı. Güncel Hukuk dergisinde yazıları yayınlandı. BirGün’de Anonim adlı köşeyi yazıyor. 2011’den bu yana bianet’te İnsan Hakları Editörü.