Turkey makes new attempt to shed light on political murders

 The move came days after Nükhet İpekçi, the daughter of journalist Abdi İpekçi, assassinated by Mehmet Ali Ağca in 1979, showed her father's bloody shirt, which she has kept for 31 years, on a television show.

    All political parties except the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) want a special commission to be established in Parliament to investigate the unsolved murders. On Thursday, a delegation of victims' families visited Parliament and had talks with Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin and the parliamentary group leaders of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), voicing their demand for a commission.

The delegation of victims’ families, led by Uğur Mumcu Foundation Executive Board member Özge Mumcu, spoke to AK Party deputy group leaders Bekir Bozdağ and Ayşenur Bahçekapılı, CHP group deputy leader Kemal Anadol and Parliamentary Human Rights Commission President Zafer Üskül. The delegation also demanded the removal of the statute of limitations on political assassinations.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman after his meeting with the families, Bozdağ said he saw the demand for a commission to shed light on unsolved political murders as a just and rightful desire. “We will relay the issue to our prime minister. We, on principle, are in favor of the idea to set up an investigation committee.” Senior members of the AK Party believe the prime minister will not oppose the establishment of the commission; however, they note that he might want to wait until Parliament bylaws are changed to allow the commission to be endowed with greater authority than it would under the current bylaws. Bozdağ noted that it is important to try to change the bylaws to expand the authority of the investigative commission, as similar commissions in the past have failed to reach any conclusions. Under the current bylaws, parliamentary investigation commissions have no sanctioning authority and their reports have the status of recommendations.

CHP gives full support

CHP deputy group leader Anadol said during his meeting with the relatives that “the perpetrator of all unsolved murders in Turkey is the state,” a remark that pleased delegation members. He said the state had played a role in some of these murders and not solving the cases meant it claimed responsibility for the murders. However, the CHP might still be against a change to the bylaws.

The BDP and the Democratic Left Party (DSP) also support the families’ initiative. BDP administrators note that more than 4,000 people have disappeared in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast and Kurdish-majority cities of the East, asserting that the state has a duty to investigate these.

“A commission that has special authority can help shed light on a majority of the unsolved murders in Turkey. We are ready to support this,” Hasan Macit, deputy chairman of the DSP, told Today’s Zaman.

The delegation came together with all parties represented in Parliament except the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The MHP administration said it could not make time in its busy schedule to meet with them. However, those who lost relatives to political assassinations are distant from this party, as many members of the “Idealists,” the youth branches of the MHP, were implicated in some of these murders. One member in the delegation who asked not to be named said, “There is no good in talking to a party which is apparently linked to many unsolved murders.” The same individual said that the unsolved murders of some MHP members and Idealists ahead of the Sept. 12, 1980 period do not change this fact. One such person is Gün Sazak, who was killed ahead of the coup d’état by perpetrators never caught at a time when he was the minister of public works. Sazak’s relatives have not made any effective attempt to shed light on the murder.

A commission was established in Parliament in 1993 to investigate unsolved murders. Despite a very helpful report produced by the commission that might have eventually lead to shedding light on some of these murders, then-Parliament Speaker Hüsamettin Cindoruk decided not to look into the document. Even if he had, the report would have remained no more than a recommendation for the government. This is exactly why the AK Party would like to endow the commission with more power. Sadık Avundukluoğlu, who presided over this commission, later said that then-Interior Minister Nahit Menteşe had told them to “let go of the case.” Hüsamettin Korkutata, also a member of the commission, told Today’s Zaman that they had seen traces of the organization today known as Ergenekon while carrying out research for the commission.

The perpetrators of the murders of journalists Uğur Mumcu, Musa Anter, İzzet Keser and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, professors Muammer Aksoy and Bahriye Üçok, former Prime Minister Nihat Erim, Diyarbakır Chief of Police Gafar Okkan, former Gendarmerie Commander Eşret Bitlis, former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) member Tarık Ümit, former gendarmerie officer Cem Ersever, Kurdish businessman Behçet Cantürk and prosecutor Doğan Öz, who was looking into shady formations inside the state, have never been found. These individuals are just a few of the victims of unsolved murders.

Commission useless without bylaw change, says Şahin

A new commission set up to investigate the unsolved assassinations of intellectuals would suffer the same fate as six earlier commissions which failed to punish the perpetrators and produce any results, unless Parliament bylaws are changed to give the commission special authority, Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin has said.

He said the insistence of the victim’s families and political parties on a new commission also indicated Turkey’s development as a democracy, and it becoming a more transparent country able to face such subversive crimes with greater courage.

Şahin spoke to the press after coming together with a delegation of victim’s families. He said an investigation committee could become more functional by a change in bylaws. He said he would be relaying the highlights of his meeting with the families to the government and political party groups in Parliament.

Family members of intellectuals assassinated for political reasons over the past few decades in unsolved murders visited Parliament on Thursday, where they met with political party representatives as well as with Şahin.

The group included members of the families of many of Turkey’s brightest minds killed over a time span of more than six decades. The families who were at Parliament on Thursday include relatives of writer Sabahattin Ali, killed in 1948; academic Necdet Bulut, killed in 1978; prosecutor Doğan Öz, killed in 1978; journalist Abdi İpekçi, killed in 1979; Police Chief Cevat Yurdakul, killed in 1979; academic Cavit Orhan Tütengil, also killed in 1979; journalist Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, killed in 1980; Sevinç Özgüner, killed in 1980; union leader Kemal Türkler, killed in 1980; writer İlhan Erdost, killed while in police custody in 1980; journalist Çetin Emeç, killed in 1990; Kurdish writer Musa Anter, killed in 1992; journalist Uğur Mumcu, killed in 1997; poets Nesimi Çimen, Metin Altıok and Behçet Aysan and musician Hasret Gültekin, burnt to death in the 1993 Sivas Massacre; writer Onat Kutlar, killed in 1994; archaeologist Yasemin Cebenoyan, killed in 1994; Hasan Ocak, killed while in police custody in 1995; journalist Metin Göktepe, beaten to death by police in 1996; and the Dink family. The family of Necip Hablemitoğlu, a scientist killed in 2002, was also present. Hablemitoğlu’s murder, initially blamed on religious groups, is now believed to be linked to the coup-plotting group Ergenekon. İstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires