ISTANBUL - IHD Chairperson Eren Keskin said that, as a human rights defender, they witnessed many crimes committed by the Turkish Armed Forces and reported them, adding that the crimes committed were also included in the reports prepared by the state.

 

Following Republican People's Party (CHP) Amed(Diyarbakır) MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu's statements against the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in a television program, discussions about the crimes committed by the Turkish Armed Forces in Kurdistan in the 1990s came to the fore again.

 

Tanrıkulu said in the program he attended and asked“Isn't this the Turkish Armed Forces that carried out the fascist coup on September 12? Isn't this the army that attempted a coup on July 15, burned villages... Dozens of unsolved murders. There are cases that I follow. Isn't it the Turkish Armed Forces that threw 15 villagers from a helicopter? "It has become established by the decision of the ECHR...". An investigation was launched against Tanrıkulu, for whom a lynching campaign was launched after the programme, on the charge of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility or humiliating".

 

Eren Keskin, Chairperson of the Human Rights Association (IHD), which has been fighting in the field of human rights since the 1990s, and one of the founders of the Legal Aid Bureau against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Custody, talked about the discussions initiated against the Turkish Armed Forces and his testimonies regarding the mentioned events.

 

APPROVED BY THE ECtHR

 

Stating that everything Tanrikulu said about the Turkish Armed Forces in the program he was connected to was true, Keskin said: "There were many similar events in the history of Turkey. Tanrıkulu's allegations were approved by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Tanrikulu was threatened by the highest authority of the state, especially from his own party. However, the international agreements signed by Turkey give a person the right to speak freely on this issue. Moreover, the file that Tanrıkulu mentioned was approved by the ECtHR and Turkey was convicted."

 

CRIMES IN STATE REPORTS

 

Pointing out that the crimes committed by the state were also included in the reports prepared by the state itself, Keskin said: “Those who lynched Tanrıkulu because of the facts he revealed today need to look back at the state's own reports. For example, the Susurluk report. This state had its own inspector prepare the Susurluk report, and in this report, facts that were against itself and that we would be lynched for saying today were disclosed. Again, during the AKP period, President Erdoğan, who was the prime minister at the time, promised Berfo Kırbayır and the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission launched a major investigation into the disappearance of Cemil Kırbayır. And finally, the state announced the following report: 'Cemil Kırbayır was taken into custody and tortured and killed by state forces in custody, and it was concluded that his body was hidden.'"

 

'I AM A WITNESS TO MANY CRIMES'

 

Keskin, who said that as a human rights defender, she witnessed the crimes committed by the Turkish Armed Forces and reported these crimes, explained her testimonies with the following words: “I saw a female guerrilla being dragged naked on the ground before my eyes and the body of female guerrilla Ekin Wan being displayed naked. We, as human rights defenders, are the closest witnesses to how the state tried to hide this crime after the murder of Vedat Aydın. We know very well how Musa Anter was brought to death and how that process was carried out. Who committed all these crimes? For example, Dargeçit losses. Their families searched for them for years, and it turned out that these people were burned in acid wells after being murdered in custody. A specialist sergeant named Bilal Batırır, who was the assistant of the commander of that period, Mehmet Tire, started to tell all this. After years of effort, we had the mass graves opened at the place indicated by the families, and the bones of the Dargeçit missing people were actually found in those mass graves. So what happened? Mehmet Tire, who was said to have burned them in acid wells, went and became the mayor of Bodrum Gümüşlük. Today, the state expects us to clear the crimes committed by JITEM."