The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) has decided to look closer into some ongoing cases which have so far failed to conclude although suspects are charged with serious charges such as murder and torture.
The foundation, which has been holding meetings with co-plaintiffs in such cases, will attend today’s hearing in the Temizöz trial with a group of academicians and members of the foundation’s democratization program. The trial is the culmination of an investigation that was launched when wells in the city of Silopi, in Şırnak province, were found to contain human remains, believed to be the bones of individuals who were victims of an illegal organization inside the gendarmerie in the 1990s known as JİTEM. Kayseri Provincial Gendarmerie Battalion Commander Col. Cemal Temizöz was the commander of the gendarmerie in Cizre between 1993 and 1995. At that time there were 55 unsolved murders in the area, and the people in the region strongly believe that all of them were organized by Temizöz. The foundation will also look into the trial into the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Dink was fatally shot by Samast outside the Agos weekly in 2007, but the masterminds of the assassination have still not been found. Three years after his death, Dink’s family and friends and rights organizations continue to voice anger that the mystery surrounding the journalist’s murder has yet to be unraveled. Another case TESEV will monitor is the one into killings of three Bible publishers in Malatya in 2007. On April 18, 2007, Christian Turks Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel and Christian German national Tilman Geske were tied to their chairs, stabbed and tortured at the Zirve Publishing House before their throats were slit. The publishing house they worked for printed Bibles and Christian literature. In both the Dink case and Malatya case, the police have been accused of trying to obscure evidence to protect the suspects and even of having links to the assailants. In the case of Dink, one of the prime suspects is a known ex-police informant. Koray Özdil, from TESEV’s democratization program, said necessary public support should be created for justice to come in these cases. “We will try to create this support,” he said, adding that the foundation will prepare a report based on its observations and results of meetings with co-plaintiffs. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-229255-tesev-to-monitor-cases-that-remain-clouded-in-mystery.html