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Temizöz makes shocking claims of protectionism for victims
In the courtroom of the Diyarbakır 6th High Criminal Court, Temizöz claimed that his duty was to protect the people of the region and he was sorry that he was not able to do so. The trial is the culmination of an investigation that was launched when wells excavated in the city of Silopi were found to contain human remains, believed to be bones of individuals who were victims of killings of an illegal organization inside the gendarmerie in the '90s known as JİTEM.
Temizöz was the commander of the gendarmerie in Cizre between 1993 and 1995. At that time there were 55 unsolved murders in the area, but the people of the region strongly believed that all of them organized by Temizöz, who is under arrest but still Kayseri Provincial Gendarmerie Battalion Commander. According to the indictment, Temizöz and his six coworkers, including former Cizre Mayor Kamil Atağ, are suspected of involvement in 20 unsolved murders in the area. The other suspects in the case are Atağ’s son Temer Atağ, a former member of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and later a state informant, Adem Yakın and other informants, including Fırat Altın, Hıdır Altuğ and Kukel Altuğ.
The prosecution claims that Temizöz formed a group comprised of village guards, ex-PKK members and specialized sergeants as if they were fighting the PKK but instead, the group was involved in illegal activities.
The prosecution claims that the group committed hundreds of murders of Kurds in the area under the guise of “anti-terrorism” efforts. Yakın, Altın, Hıdır Altuğ and special sergeants using the code names Yavuz, Tuna, Cabbar and Selim Hoca were members of this death squad, according to the indictment. Temizöz gave the orders and instructions to the members of the death squad himself. The prosecution also says identity documents belonging to those killed by the team were delivered to Temizöz.
Temizöz faces nine life sentences without the possibility of parole on charges of committing murder and establishing an organization with the aim of engaging in criminal activity.
One of their alleged victims was Ömer Candoruk, and at the hearing on Friday his widow testified that when Temizöz and his friends kidnapped her husband she was just 25 years old and the mother of six children, the youngest of which was just two months old. In her testimony, which was given in Kurdish, she pleaded to the judges to solve the case and added that this was the only way for her family to relieve some of the pain that they have been suffering. “I saw the dead body of my husband. There were so many holes in his back. Even birds do not kill like that,” she told the judges. Candoruk added that her husband’s car was stolen by his killers, and she later saw it being driven by JITEM members.
Another woman, Hazni Afşar, pointed to Temizöz in the court room and said: “You took my husband, he was wearing a red jacket at the time. You took him from our home and after a while we heard the gun shots,” adding: “I was scared to apply to the court at that time, I had 11 children, I though they would kill them too. But still I am scared.”
Another victim’s wife, Seyran Binzet, in her testimony said that her husband Abdürrezzak Binzet was detained by JITEM three times before being killed, and every time he was tortured. She said that his dead body was found in a well near the gendarmerie station.
Temizöz, in court, claimed that his duty was to fight the PKK and added: “My duty was to protect the lives, property and honor of the people of the region. I am sorry that I was not able to protect the relatives of the aggrieved persons." He said that he agreed that those years were years of horror but this horror was created by the PKK and he was fighting against it. He added while he was doing his duty no Turkish soldiers were killed.
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