Actually, it could even be said that the entire picture consisted of such details. Who came together? Filiz Ali, the daughter of Sebahattin Ali, who was murdered during the rule of the “national chief,” İsmet İnönü, Turkey’s second president; Deniz Tütengil Mazlum, the daughter of Professor Cavit Tütengil, who was murdered to lay the groundwork for the military coup of Sept. 12, 1980; Nilgün Türkler Soydan, the daughter of Kemal Türkler; Nükhet İpekçi, the daughter of Abdi İpekçi; Zeynep Altıok, the daughter of Metin Altıok, who was killed in the Madımak Hotel; and Meryem Türkmen, the sister of journalist Metin Göktepe, who was killed just to change the country’s agenda, were all there. Most importantly, Özgür Mumcu, the son of Uğur Mumcu, and the wife and daughter of Erdal Öz, too, had come. Moreover, the relatives of Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Cevat Yurdakul, Sevinç Özgüner, İlhan Erdost, Çetin Emeç, Turan Dursun, Musa Anter, Nesimi Çimen, Behçet Aysan, Hasret Gültekin, Yasemin Cebenoyan and Onat Kutlar undersigned a call to put an end to unsolved murders in Turkey. Filiz Ali read a joint statement, and a particular sentence from this statement was important: “There is still an opportunity to purge the destructive networks within the state.”Still, it would have been better if the relatives of Hamit Fendoğlu, Gün Sazak, İlhan Darendelioğlu and Mustafa Özbilgin, who died in the Council of State attack, had lent support to this statement. Looking at these murders today, we can realize that these murders were committed mostly on ideological grounds. These murders were not committed with rightist or leftist justifications. Today, we can clearly see that almost all of them had intended to create a chaotic country, unable to be governed or to think in a sound manner.
It is important that families understand this as much as we do because these murders are not remembered by only those who were affected by it. In Turkey, even the most unlawful and terrifying incidents can be swept under the rug as soon as they drop from the public agenda. Recent incidents have given us a better understanding of how secret activities and murders are covered up by way of judicial operations and what purpose the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) serves. For the past 35 years, this country’s agenda has been rattled by unsolved murder cases, but we only remember the very few that were prosecuted. And even in these few cases only the gunman was found, and the dark forces behind the killings were never discovered.
The more families of victims insist on pursuing these murder cases, the easier it will become to solve the mystery. Until now murders provided big political advantages to those who ordered them. It gave a legitimate reason for coups, enabled the conviction that “Islam is a monster” to be instilled in society and caused personal freedoms to be put on hold. Owing to these murders, the established order sustained its existence and found legitimate excuses for itself.
But for the first time, victims whose loved ones were assassinated are collectively saying, “It’s enough” to the lies that they have been hearing for several years. I believe this is a vital step for Turkey towards becoming an enlightened country. The image before us is also a sign that a large portion of society that was distant towards Ergenekon and similar action plans lest it would “benefit the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party” has finally realized the games that have been going on in this country.
