İHD commemorates Kurdish rights activist killed in 1991

Click to read the article in Turkish

"Vedat Aydın's way of struggle, closely connected to humanitarian values, continues to support us despite the 32 years that passed since he was murdered, in our struggle for human rights and the rule of law.  We remember Vedat Aydın and all our citizens who participated in and died in the events at his funeral," said the Human Rights Association in their statement reiterating the request for justice 32 years after the murder of rights defender and politician Vedat Aydın. 

Arrested after speaking Kurdish

Vedat Aydın became known by all after he was arrested after speaking in Kurdish at the general assembly of the Human Rights Association (İHD) on October 28, 1990.

Aydın was elected the chairperson of the Diyarbakır branch of İHD in 1990. At the general assembly of İHD, he was taken into custody together with lawyers Ahmet Zeki Okçuoğlu and Mustafa Özer who translated his speech into Turkish. He was arrested after days of questioning. 

He also gave his statement in Kurdish in the first hearing on December 19, 1990, and he was acquitted. 

Killed during denied detention in 1991

Vedat Aydın was elected the chairperson of the Diyarbakır branch of HEP, People's Labor Party in June in 1991. 

He was taken into custody by some persons introducing themselves as police officers on July 5, 1991, who told him that they were going to take his statement. 

The authorities did not accept the custody despite the applications by his family and his lawyers. He was found dead on July 7, 1991, under a bridge in Maden, Elazığ. It was determined that he was killed after being tortured. 

Fire opened at his funeral

Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral on July 10, 1991; but a fire was opened on the crowd. The official announcement was that three people died (23 people according to Hanife Avcı, the then-chair of the intelligence unit of Diyarbakır police headquarters) and hundreds were injured including MPs and journalists. 

"Unidentified" murder despite confessions

Abdülkadir Aygan, a Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Organization (JİTEM) member, who was later on the agenda with his confessions, told about the murder of Aydın in the 2000s; but even so, the perpetrators could not be identified. The investigation of the murder of Vedat Aydın was closed in 2021 due to the expiration of time. 

Kurdish intellectual and journalist Musa Anter was killed one year after the killing of Vedat Aydın. (AS/PE)