İSTANBUL - Two new witnesses that stated they were among the group of refugees who were thrown into Maritza River after their extradition to Turkey, told that they lost some friends that day. The witnesses told that a 50-year-old Afghan refugee was shot and thrown into Maritza River.

 

New witnesses emerged regarding the allegations that 45 men, who were part of a group of 150 refugees who were caught after crossing into Greece from Edirne and extradited to Turkey on August 23, were thrown into the Meriç River by the soldiers. The aforementioned incident came to the fore with the statements of Syrian refugee Sad El Delli (24) who applied to the Lawyers Association for Freedom (ÖHD) by saying that he was one of the refugees thrown into the river.

 

Delli whom we contacted after his application to the ÖHD told that they were seperated from the women and men and boys over 10 were thrown into the river by the Turkish soldiers. Delli also told that the commander who ordered them to be thrown into the water waved at them and said 'Goodbye!'.

 

TWO NEW WITNESSES

 

While these statements were brought to the agenda of the Parliament, we reached two more refugees who said that they were among those thrown into the Maritza River that day. The two asylum seekers, who were still unable to get over their fear, did not want to give their names for their safety. But the allegations they make are quite serious.

 

THEY SHOT HIM AND THROWN HIM INTO THE RIVER

 

The first witness told that a commander ordered the soldiers to throw the refugees into the river. Stating that the soldiers started to throw them into the river in groups, the witness told that an Afghan refugee tried to escape but they shot him and thrown him into the river. 

 

'EVERYTHING CHANGED ONCE THE COMMANDER WAS THERE'

 

The other witness from Syria said they crossed over to Greece from Edirne on August 23 with a group of 6, told thatt hey were detained by Greek soldiers and extradited to Turkey around 11.00. The witness said: My sister's husband was with us. We were 6 people. 3 from Afghanistan, 3 from Syria. We started walking to find a bus to İstanbul when we were extradited to Turkey. Turkish soldiers came after a while and we were forced into their vehicle. They were nice to us. Until the commander came.."

 

THE FIRST ONE TO BE THROWN INTO THE RIVER WAS TUNUSIAN

 

The witness continued, "There was a Christian and Tunisian refugee in our group. The commander said, 'Come here, I'll send you to Greece". He threw him into the river himself. He was the first one thrown into the river."

 

Everyone was afraid. A refugee who did not speak Turkish started crying. The commander told the soldier to throw everyone into the river. The commander said: "Throw them into the river. Let them go to Greece. If they resist, shoot them." Some of the soldiers did not want to carry out this order. They even told us that the shift would change after the sun went down and that they would drop us off when the commander left. But then they got scared too. They were talking among themselves, "What if the commander comes". After the commander left, the soldiers started to pick us in groups of five. They threw the first 5 people they took into the river. We could hear them shouting. The soldiers came and told us, 'Your friends are drowning. If there is anyone here who knows how to swim, they should jump in and save them.' However we told them most uf us did not know how to swim. When it was our turn the soldier told us the river was not deep and we should jump and go to Greece. And if you'll return, stay away from our sight. They threw us in too. We saw that the water was deep when we were thrown."

 

2 PEOPLE ARE STILL MISSING

 

Noting that he saved a friend who could not swim, the asylum seeker said, "I can't believe I'm still alive. This is a second chance in life. It was hard. We were six. 4 of us made out. 2 of us are still missing. I don't know if they're dead. One of the missing people is my sister's husband Muhammed İsmail. He was 28. The other one was Muhammed El Ali, father of four children. He was 37. He was Syrian."

 

 

MA / Diren Yurtsever