The 'veil of fog' over the disappearance of two HADEP members ought to disappear

Gul Demir
Feb 26, 2001
Istanbul - Turkish Daily News

Incidents of disappearances and the feelings of fear and lack of security that they generate
in people can be seen as a violation of "the right of life." Someone's "disappearance" is a
source of indescribable pain for the family that does not know if he is dead or alive. People
who don't know about the fate of their beloved writhe in pain. During a certain period, our
life
suddenly takes a different course. If police stations, security offices, lawyers' offices and
courthouses have become home to you, then you are the relative or friend of a missing
person.

Journalists are obligated more than anyone else to make efforts to understand the truth
behind the disappearance of people who vanish under custody. Especially if we don't want
people to live in fear for their lives in the first year of the 21st century... As journalists, we
came together to seek to lift the "veil of fog" over the missing and, for that reason, went to
Diyarbakir in order to learn what transpired there and to convey the sensitivities of the
people to the authorities.

The first obstacle on our trip from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, where we travelled with
journalist-author Mehmet Altan, Cengiz Candar, Ali Bayramoglu and HADEP deputy
chairman Mehmet Metiner, was "bad weather conditions." Waiting for us at the airport were
writers Suzan Samanci, Vedat Cetin, journalist Celal Baslangic and sociologist Cristina
Kolvunen, People's Democracy Party (HADEP) Diyarbakir municipal chairman Ali Urkut,
Batman Municipal Chairman Murat Ceylan, a number of other party members as well as
head of the Diyarbakir bar Mustafa Ozer.

Back to the past?

After I arrive I rethink the questions that occupied me on the way to Diyarbakir... What
should be done to enable people to sleep without fearing for their lives? Is a happy and
peaceful life not a birthright? We are in a historic city where the rate of unemployment is
70%. Just as we said that peace was reestablished here, we once again encounter
disconcern and anxiety. We worry that the past will return after the assassination of
Diyarbakir security chief Gaffar Okkan and the disappearance of two HADEP members.
The locals who were strolling in the streets at midnight when Okkan was security chief are
now in their houses. We find out that even the cab drivers don't work after 11 p.m. The lack
of confidence is perceptible.

The residents of Diyarbakir are bothered by the fact that HADEP, which received about 4.5
percent of the votes during the general elections, won the municipal elections in 37
locations and runs seven big city municipalities, is made to appear illegal. They are also
bothered to marked as the city of potential mystery murders, disappearances and violence.

The meetings went well

We could not go from Diyarbakir to Silopi because of the bad weather conditions. We spent
the day talking with authorities in Diyarbakir. We first went to the metropolitan
municipality
where we met mayor Feridun Celik and the district mayors.

Responding to our questions, Mayor Celik said that the negative developments during the
recent past were worrying them. He frequently emphasized that the public did not want to
return to the period of mystery murders and violence. Stressing that nothing had been heard
about the missing for one month, Celik said that "some people in the region do not want to
live without shedding blood and making war, but the locals are worried about this
[contingency.]"

Then we visited Diyarbakir Governor A. Cemil Serhadli in his office and asked him about
the
latest developments. Serhadli was very warm and friendly to us. "All of the police officers
work day and night. We don't want to accuse anyone unjustly. We will find the missing. But
we don't want to blame anyone at this point." He did not answer some of our questions,
such as "May Yesil be at work again?," perhaps because he thought them absurd. Governor
Serhadli emphasized that they did not want to see a return to the days of violence.

We wanted to visit the security headquarters to express our mourning and convey our good
wishes to the new security chief. But we were told that he could not meet us because of his
busy schedule.

Meantime, the U.N. Summary and Arbitrary Exucutions Committee was in Diyarbakir to
find
out what had happened to HADEP officials Serdar Tanis and Ebubekir Deniz, who have
been missing for one month.

There are some unanswered questions. It is certain that Tanis and Deniz went to the Silopi
District Gendarmerie Headquarters on Jan. 25. There are minutes and witnesses to confirm
this fact. But why did the gendarme admit this six days later? Why was the fact that they
went there announced only six days later? Second, why was there no correspondence
between the gendarmerie's headquarters and the public prosecutor? It is generally known
that there is a legal procedure to record the situation of the detainees. Even if someone is
taken under custody voluntarily, minutes have to be written and official records ought to be
kept, a procedure about which the public prosecutor is informed. If these steps were not
taken, may we look for other causes?

The public should demonstrate its sensitivity in order for these issues to be resolved as
soon as possible. Not only the locals but all of us needs to see a resolution of this event. If
we don't want to go missing one day, we should regard getting information about what is
happening in Turkey as our natural right.

Suayip Tanis tells the story: My son got lost

Serdar Tanis, who established the HADEP branch of Silopi, was always threatened with
death. Since these threats were made over the phone, it should have been possible to
establish the identity of the people who were threatening Tanis. It is well known that records
of telephone conversations are provided by security units upon request.

In addition, Serdar Tanis' father Suayip Tanis says that his son sent a petition to the public
prosecutor stating that he was threatened with death: "Around 25 days before the event, the
Sirnak Municipal Gendarmerie Regiment Command stopped me on the way to Silopi over
the Cizre Bridge and asked me to go back. The regiment commander said that if my son
did not resign from HADEP, they would not allow him and his family to live. In addition,
the
Silopi district gendarmerie commander called me on Jan. 17. He wanted my son to resign
from HADEP. I said that my son did not obey me. On Jan. 18, I sent my son to the Silopi
District Gendermarie Command upon the demand of gendarmerie commander Suleyman
Can. Apparently he asked my son to resign from HADEP. My son had said that he would
not
resign, but that he was ready to bear every kind of punishment if he did something illegal.
On Jan. 23 three people who introduced themselves as police officers asked my son and
my nephew Eyup Tanis to get into the car. My son apparently declined and said that he
would go to the district gendarmerie command if they phoned him. When phoned he took
Ebubekir Deniz with him and went. Then he disappeared."

'Government ought to understand grief of the people'

Asma Jahangir, the U.N. Rapporteur for the Prevention of Summary and Arbitrary
Executions, is a a lawyer from Pakistan. She chaired the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, which is a non-governmental organization, for many years. The Turkish Daily
News has previously published the work of this commission.

This is what Jahangir said about the disappearances in the Southeast and her work at the
U.N. in an exclusive interview with the TDN:

"What I knew before I came here is that in the 1990's, we had received a lot of reports of
extra-judicial reports and disappearances. I had requested the Turkish government to invite
me for many years. They have been kind to do so now. What I did find out is that there has
been quite a bit of reduction in extra-judicial killings. There has been a tremendous
reduction.

"But the families of the people who disappeared are not satisfied, because they are not
getting a response from the government. They are not getting any satisfactory response as
to where their families are.

I found many people who have given testimony of their families who have disappeared while
in custody, or died in custody. And this was not only in the past. But no cases have been
initiated against the gendarmerie or the police and nobody has taken any action.

There is a whole question of the village guard who in the past did attack people. The
government has not taken any action against the village guards. The present situation is
such that although there is calm in the area, and the people and the government both want
that calm to continue, at the same time the recent disappearance has brought back distrust
among the people. They are very worried that the old habits may come back. At the same
time, the government is equally worried that they don't want any remaining terrorist splinters
to take advantage of the situation.

As regards to my meetings with government officials, my goal was in fact to take
information from them. Obviously, you cannot generalize from your meeting with every
government official. But unfortunately they are still not willing to accept the fact that people
have genuine grief. And unless the government accepts this, they will not be able to take up
doing anything about it.

I mean the answer that "well, there have been no extra-judicial killings, only terrorists have
died," the answer that it is only the terrorists that have killed is not a satisfactory answer. Or,
you know, somebody telling me that someone was captured dead is not enough.

Maybe I should not say anything about HADEP in particular. But my report will be very
detailed in talking about disappearances. I have croschecked my information from six or
seven sources. I cannot tell about the results of my inquiry before I prepare the report
because a lot of people give you material when you are there. You have to read the
information before you really begin to put your thoughts down. It is not possible while you
are
on a visit, especially if it is in Turkish. So I will go back and have someone translate all of it.

The only positive side of this work, and it is not a job, because we are not employed by the
U.N., we don't get a salary by the U.N. it is an honorary job, is that you can tell the truth. I
would be happy to go back if I am not allowed to tell the truth. But I am not saying that
there
are no differences with our opinion. These are very complex situations. The first casualty is
truth in these situations. To put yourself through that whole maze and to try to get the truth
out is not easy.

I would be recommending a lot of actions with regard to this matter. My report also has to
recommend. I would like to encourage people and civil societies, which maybe groups of
journalists and lawyers, that this is a mechanism of the U.N. where they can give
information more directly. It should be used more often. What we get sitting in Geneva is
that we get the tip of the iceberg.

Mehmet Altan: 'Social peace may be shattered if people fail to communicate across
the political spectrum and if they are not under the protection of the law in so doing'

Here is what Professor Mehmet Altan, who is also a writer and journalist, told the TDN in
an
exclusive interview:

My assessment is that the vast difference between the social and economic climate of say,
the Sisli neighborhood of Istanbul, on the one hand, and that of Silopi or the Cizre district of
Sirnak on the other, is a very unhealthy condition for a country. When we juxtapose Cizre
and Sisli, we see how a country fails to establish unity. Second, the tendency of the local
administration to not trust society as a whole is very clear, and it is apparent that the
mechanisms of repression are in place and may be put to work at any time. What may be
worst is that the mentality that regards the people in the region as potential offenders is still
there.

Regarding the disappearance of two HADEP members which was our main concern, the
judicial officers said that such events were not systematic, which to them meant that they
would certainly be resolved and they stressed their resolve. Yet this ought to happen within
a reasonable period of time for us to be convinced. Personally, I would like this statement to
be true. In other words, I don't want the region to again become the victim of repression and
mystery murders.

As far as our observations go, the people who applied to us in Sirnak and said that they
were being threatened and did not have security of life all point to the same person. It is
widely alleged that a mechanism of menacing people which uses the same scenarios and
even the same words is operant, and that behind all this stands the gendarmerie municipal
command.

Indeed, if this incident of disappearances is not a separate event, and if an invisible power
regards Sirnak as a very strategic location, does not see HADEP as a legal party, and if it in
addition regards it as dangerous for HADEP to organize in all the districts, and finally, if the
occurrence of the missing is only the beginning of the actions of this power, this of course
would be something very dangerous. I find this very dangerous, because social peace may
be shattered if people fail to communicate across the political spectrum and if they are not
under the protection of the law in so doing. If we don't want people to take up arms, we are
then in need of mechanisms whereby people can express all of their problems within the
bound of democracy and legality.

Now when it is said that the expression of these sentiments will not be allowed, and if we
recall that the people in the Southeast and those of Kurdish origin make up a considerable
proportion of the population, you may end up with a state structure where most of the
concerns of these people are not being expressed. This would create, just as it happened in
the past, a major earthquake.

In any case, the reason why we went to the region was to express as much as we could
that a return to the policies of old would create a very dangerous situation. There are of
course other things too, such as our search for a democratic individuality and a more
developed and peaceful Turkey. It is clear that the people who are making illegal profits in
the region will not much like such ideas. There is illegal trafficking in diesel oil and in drugs
in this region. There is illegal trafficking in arms, in chemical armaments and in human
beings. Some people are making an incredible amount of profits.

If peace and democracy are established in the region and the law reigns supreme, which
means that we have a real state there, then illegal profits of $50-100 will disappear, which of
course is unacceptable to the very active interest groups in the region.

Perhaps new Turkey is at a juncture. There are people who believe that if the Copenhagen
criteria are put in effect, Turkey will regain its health. There are people who are of this
persuasion across society. And there are others who want to return to the old system
where they could maximize their financial an psychological gains and turn the country into a
bloodbath. Silopi is a place where the clash of these forces has emerged most clearly.

We of course hope that we will find these people alive, but if they have been killed, then we
hope that this will not be another mystery murder like in the past and that the offenders will
be brought to court. We hope that they will be punished and such events will not recur.

Silopi is like a laboratory for Turkey, and the developments there are significant for the rest
of the country. If this event is not resolved, we will have seen that despite all the serious
accusations and allegations, the side of the administrators and military authorities who are
claimed to have threatened the region is being taken, and that the mentality that is ready to
put fire to Turkey in order to keep this event in the dark and to have it repeat so that some
people can make illegal gains is still prevalent. This would of course result in a collapse and
downward trend which Turkey could not resist.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com