Organized for the fifth time this year by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), the panel "Unsolved: Fighting Impunity" took place on Wednesday, November 23rd at Cezayir Meeting Halls in Beyoğlu.
The panel brought together relatives of those killed as a result of political assassinations and enforced disappearances and those who struggle in this field; Dicle Anter, the son of Musa Anter, a Kurdish journalist and writer who was murdered in Diyarbakır in 1992; lawyer Sertaç Ekinci, the son of Yusuf Ekinci, a Kurdish lawyer who was killed in Ankara in 1994 in an extrajudicial killing; Maside Ocak, the sister of Hasan Ocak, who was forcibly disappeared after being detained by the police in 1995; and political scientist and historian Daniel Chaparro Diaz, the son of Colombian journalist Julio Chaparro, who was killed in 1991. The panel was moderated by journalist and writer Mehveş Evin to draw attention to impunity and raise awareness on what can be done to bring those who commit these crimes to justice.
Ocak: 'We wanted my brother to be the last disappeared person'
The panel started with the opening speech of Maside Ocak. Stating that disappearance became a state policy in the 90s, Ocak said that as Saturday Mothers/People, they demanded justice for the disappeared and murdered people all over Turkey. Ocak said, "My brother was not the first person to be disappeared in detention, but we wanted him to be the last. Since the disappearance of our loved ones in detention, our lives have been determined by two things: No grave and impunity. We want graves and our disappeared. We demand the truth to be revealed and the murderers to be punished."
Anter: 'There has been no effective investigation for 30 years'
After Ocak, Dicle Anter took the floor. Stating that political murders are acts carried out to create a climate of fear, Anter said, "Of course we do not want any human being to be killed, but there is nothing worse than the killing of thinking people. Killing a thinking person is the elimination of social memory." Stating that since 1992 no effective investigation has been carried out to shed light on the murder, Anter reminded that the case was dropped at the end of 30 years and said, "During this court process, we were only given a purple file and A4 paper after signing for the case file. We have brought the case to the point it is today by scratching and clawing."
Diaz: 'We share the same fate'
Political scientist and historian Daniel Chaparro Diaz, who participated in the panel from Colombia, stated that although they live in different geographies, they all share the same fate as relatives of the disappeared. Diaz said that not only journalists but also many people in Colombia have fallen victim to unsolved murders and added: "For 30 years we have been demanding the same thing, we want justice. We will not stop fighting until justice is served. Fighting for 30 years for justice is really exhausting, but one must continue without getting tired and without giving up. Memory is very important for the integrity of society. We must pass this memory to the second and third generations and carry the struggle to future generations."
Ekinci: 'This is the state itself'
Lawyer Sertaç Ekinci also spoke about their struggle for the enlightenment of his father's disappearance and said, "Unsolved murders are not an exceptional case. This happens in all countries, but Turkey is quantitatively different." "The concept of the deep state is a concept invented by liberal writers in the 90s and has no reality. There is no deep state, it is the state itself."
