Posted on 08/26/2018 5:24:44 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Istanbul police have broken up the 700th weekly vigil by Turkish mothers demanding accountability for disappearances of relatives since the 1980s. Tear gas was fired and dozens were detained while defying a protest ban.
Police dispersed a group known as "Saturday Mothers" as it headed for Istanbul's Galatasaray Square, prompting Human Rights Watch (HRW) to describe Saturday's incident as "cruel treatment of families seeking justice for state crimes."
One of those briefly held by police was an 82-year-old mother, Emine Ocak (pictured above), whose son Hasan disappeared in 1995 after being taken into custody, then aged 30.
Read more: Turkey's silent 'Standing Man' in 2013
The mothers who have run regular vigils for decades want an independent commission to look into the unexplained fate of relatives missing since Turkey's 1980 coup and during three decades of conflict centered on Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
Activists say Turkey has never properly investigated the fates of those still missing.
Vigil prohibited
Istanbul's central Beyoglu district authority had banned Saturday's vigil, asserting that social media linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been used by organizers - a claim denied by Saturday Mothers as a group.
From 1999 until 2009, police repeatedly intervened to hinder vigils but in more recent years had kept only a watchful presence until Saturday's use of water cannon and tear gas.
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
My friend Uzay Bulut wrote a detailed article about this 2 years ago for the Philos Project. (excerpted) She informed me about the DW article this morning.
Turkey Uncensored: A Dark History of Enforced Disappearances
Hursit Kulter, a member of the Sirnak Provincial Board representing the legal pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), was allegedly detained by Turkish state forces on May 27. He has been missing ever since.
Administrative organs, including the governor and prosecutor of the predominantly Kurdish city of Sirnak, in addition to the local police and military, have denied knowledge of Kulters detainment, refusing to give any information about his whereabouts.
Turkeys Coalition against Impunity issued this statement about Kulters disappearance:
We draw the attention of the international and national communities to the fact that there is serious evidence that the Turkish government has once again begun to implement the practice of enforced disappearances.
Kulters father testifies that his son called him that day and told him that he was at home, the house was surrounded by soldiers, he was going to be taken under custody, that they should look for him and then the communication ceased and there has been no news from his son since that phone call.
From a twitter account BÖF@Tweet_Guneydoğu, which is believed to belong to security forces undertaking the operations in the region, it was tweeted that Hursit Kulter was under custody.
The Turkish Government is responsible to investigate and determine the whereabouts of Hursit Kulter and to take precautions against any threats to his life under national and international law.
If a person is detained by security forces and no information is available about his/her whereabouts, the government is responsible to have a reasonable explanation about what happened.
In the meantime, lawyers working for Turkeys Human Rights Association (IHD) appealed to the United Nations for Kulter, saying that they are in fear for Kulters life and that more severe human rights violations are taking place than in the 1990s, with many people being disappeared and killed in extrajudicial murders in Cizre, Nusaybin, Sur, Silopi and Dargecit.
Turkey is a corrupt Muzpit like the rest of its brother nations and has no business being in NATO. Erdogan is an evil snake too.
Erdogan the Islamist Dictator of Turkey has almost sealed Turkey’s destruction.
Watch the drop in value of the Turkish Lira. There will not be a soft landing and it will end badly for Turkey and the Region.
In my opinion, Putin is cozying up to Erdogan to seal his end.
Kurds know too. But the Islamists will never admit it. They have yet to admit the Armenian Genocide.
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