TİHV says 1,901 unsolved murders committed in last 21 years

Speaking before the parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission on Wednesday, Üsterci presented a report to the press and commission members. The report indicates that unsolved murders were at their peak between 1990 and 1994. Üsterci stated that unsolved murders should not be closed due to a statute of limitations. With the current judicial regulations, if the unsolved murder cases between 1992 and 1993 are not investigated soon, they will be closed due to a statute of limitations.

Üsterci said the Susurluk affair -- which exposed links between the Turkish state, the criminal underworld and Turkish security forces -- signified high tension in the 1990s and added, “If we look at those years to see why there are so many unsolved murders, we are inevitably led to the Kurdish problem.

The abuse of individual rights started when the state implemented counter-guerilla techniques and outright war.”

The report indicates that the number of unsolved murders in 1990 was only 11; this number increased to 31 in 1991. But in 1992 there was a huge increase in the number of unsolved murders: 362 people. In 1993 there were 467 unsolved murders and 423 in 1994. There were 166 unsolved murders in 1995, 113 in 1996, 65 in 1997, 45 in 1998, 52 in 1999, 13 in 2000, 24 in 2001, eight in 2002, 16 in 2003, eight in 2004, four in 2005, 21 in 2006, two in 2007, 30 in 2008, 18 in 2009, nine in 2010 and 13 in 2011.

A detailed list of the victims of unsolved murders is included in Üsterci’s report: Kurdish author Musa Anter; Vedat Aydın, the Diyarbakır branch chairman of the now-defunct People’s Labor Party (HEP); retired general Adnan Ersöz; Bahtiyar Aydın, who is among the founders of the Gendarmerie Intelligence Group Command (JİTEM); Gen. Hulusi Sayın; Gen. Necip Hablemitoğlu; Col. Rıdvan Özden; lecturers Sıddık Bilgin, Turan Dursun and Bahriye Üçok; journalists and authors Uğur Mumcu and Çetin Emeç; and Savaş Buldan, Behçet Cantürk, Namık Erdoğan, Serdar Tanış, Ebubekir Deniz and journalist İzzet Kezer, who were all killed at a Nevruz celebration held in Şırnak’s Cizre district in 1992.

Col. Özden to be exhumed for detailed autopsy

A detailed autopsy of the body of Col. Rıdvan Özden, who was the Mardin battalion commander before he was killed in 1995, will be conducted by the order of the İstanbul Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday.

Earlier this month the prosecutors assigned to the Ergenekon case -- an investigation of a clandestine network whose alleged members are currently on trial on charges of attempting to overthrow the government -- asked the prosecutor’s office to conduct a detailed autopsy of Özden.

In her testimony to the prosecutors, the widow of the colonel, Tomris Özden, said her husband was not killed with a shot to his forehead, as is indicated in the official autopsy report; rather, the bullet came from behind. She also stated that her husband died on Dec. 12, not Dec. 14.

Some members of the army who witnessed the colonel’s murder say that five Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists were killed in clashes on Dec. 14 and that Özden’s body was brought to the area where they were allegedly found dead, along with the bodies of some other members of the army, in an apparent move to obscure the circumstances of his death and make it appear as if he was killed in action.

Prosecutors investigating Özden’s alleged murder stated that there is a need for a detailed autopsy to reconcile contradicting details in the current autopsy. Prosecutors think Özden could have been killed by members of JİTEM, an illegal network inside the gendarmerie which is believed to have been responsible for thousands of unsolved murders in eastern and southeastern Turkey in the ‘90s. Özden is thought to have been killed by JİTEM members who are currently in prison for being members of Ergenekon.

Özden was killed in 1995 in the city of Mardin. His wife expressed doubts at the time that her husband was killed in a clash with PKK terrorists, as officials claim was the case.