Number of skulls found in Diyarbakır increases to 23

First bone fragments and skulls were accidentally discovered over the past two weeks by some laborers laying pipes in the İçkale neighborhood of Diyarbakır.

 

Four more skulls were unearthed Wednesday morning during excavations in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, bringing the total count of human skulls found in the province's historic İçkale neighborhood in the past two weeks to 23.

 

A representative from the Diyarbakır Prosecutor's Office told the Anatolia news agency that the total increased to 23 following renewed search efforts on Wednesday by a team of 20 experts employed by the Diyarbakır Governor's Office. A large number of bone fragments and a number of skulls were inadvertently discovered last week by laborers laying pipes in an area where the former headquarters of JİTEM, a clandestine intelligence organization within the gendarmerie that is believed to have been responsible for thousands of unsolved murders in eastern and southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, was located. As news emerged on Wednesday about the increase in the skull count, Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu told the ANKA news agency that the situation has reached a grave point.
Tanrıkulu, who is a former president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, said he is waiting for the Ministry of Justice to make a comprehensive statement as to how the investigations should be carried out and called for a more comprehensive and intensive operation. He urged the government to take measures that are in accordance with international conventions.

“We need photographs of every stage of this excavation [and] in what arrangement these bones and skulls have been found. Is it likely these people were the victims of a massacre? These are questions that need to be asked. It will do no good for ministers to go to the east and be pictured having snowball fights in the snow. This is a serious matter and it requires a serious investigation,” Tanrıkulu said.

On Monday, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Diyarbakır deputy Altan Tan called for the establishment of a parliamentary commission to investigate suspected extrajudicial murders by JİTEM and the ongoing excavations in Diyarbakır. Mehmet Emin Aktar, the president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, told prosecutors on Monday that the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) will add to the reliability of the search. Aktar also stated that the geophysics departments of several universities have GPR capable of showing the presence of objects larger than 5 centimeters. This method of detection can search up to 40 meters deep.

The intensive excavations in the area over the past two weeks have raised hopes that light will be shed on some of the unsolved murders that took place during the dark period of the 1990s in the Southeast. Hundreds of people are said to have been tortured at the JİTEM headquarters. Although İçkale was known as one of JİTEM’s execution sites, no excavations in search of human remains were allowed before the discovery in the area because it had been designated an historic site.

Bone fragments and skulls that were unearthed last week have been transported under high security to the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) in İstanbul, where DNA tests will be carried out. Blood samples from the relatives of missing persons from Turkey’s Southeast, who continue to seek answers regarding the fate of their loved ones, will then be taken and analyzed in an attempt to identify the bodies.

Silopi excavation reveals bones suspected to belong to missing villagers

Excavations were carried out near the Görümlü Gendarmerie Battalion Headquarters in Görümlü village, Silopi district, Şırnak province. (Photo: AA)

 

Excavations near the Görümlü Gendarmerie Battalion Headquarters in Görümlü village, Silopi district, Şırnak province for the remains of six villagers allegedly killed 19 years ago revealed three bone fragments on Wednesday.

 

After a witness testified that he saw the six villagers murdered, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a statement saying excavations would be carried to search for the villagers' remains at the headquarters. By order of the provincial prosecutor's office, the Silopi Public Prosecutor's Office began to excavate at the Görümlü Gendarmerie Battalion Headquarters.

The witness who had provided information to the prosecutor's office about the six missing villagers said he was there to complete his military service at the time. According to the witness' statement, lead weights were tied to the villagers' feet before they were murdered and buried near the Görümlü gendarmerie headquarters.
A total of 938 bones have been discovered in the region in the past two years at seven different sites in southeastern Turkey that have investigated in an attempt to cast some light on the region's dark history of unsolved murders. Some 530 of these bones were later deemed by forensic investigators to be those of animals.

The existence of death wells has long been an issue of contention. Several people have claimed that JİTEM, a clandestine gendarmerie intelligence unit established in the late 1980s to counter ethnic separatism in the Southeast, was behind the killings of hundreds of people in the region in the 1990s. It was alleged that JİTEM summarily executed a large number of people, doused their bodies in acid and buried them in wells located near facilities belonging to the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) in several southeastern cities.

Şırnak Bar Association Chairman Nurşirevan Elçi, who observed the excavation, said following the dig three bone fragments were found, but the digging had to stop as it was getting dark. He added that they will continue searching on Thursday.

Coup suspect confesses to discussing coup at 2003 seminar

A Sledgehammer coup case suspect on Thursday confessed that instead of an official military plan, three action plans regarding the post-coup period were discussed at a seminar in military barracks in 2003, during which preparations were allegedly made for the Sledgehammer coup plot.

Sledgehammer is a suspected coup plot believed to have been devised in 2003 with the aim of unseating the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government through violent acts. According to the Sledgehammer plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through violent acts, among which were bomb attacks on the Fatih and Beyazıt mosques in İstanbul.

One of the Sledgehammer suspects pending trial, Lt. Gen. Tevfik Özkılıç, made his defense at the 75th hearing of the Sledgehammer case at the İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court on Thursday. During the hearing one of the jailed suspects in the case, Ayhan Taş, asked Özkılıç whether he had sensed the alleged preparations for a coup during the 2003 seminar, which he participated in as an observer. In response Özkılıç said “no,” adding that instead of discussing the official military plan named the “Egemen Action Plan,” a proposal was made to discuss “private matters,” which included a “martial law plan,” a “rear area security plan” and a “state of emergency security plan.”

Özkılıç also noted that he was opposed to the proposal to discuss other issues on the grounds that the subject of a seminar could not be changed three months prior to the seminar.

After the remarks from Özkılıç, retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, a key suspect in the case who is currently under arrest, took to the stand and asserted that he did not demand that the Egemen action plan be completely removed from the seminar.

In response to a question from retired Gen. Recep Rıfkı Durusoy, a jailed suspect in the case, who asked if the Sledgehammer action plan included any actions against the government, Özkılıç said he did not remember and that he did not know if such actions were included.

Doğan had said in a hearing on June 16, 2011 that only the Egemen action plan was discussed at the 2003 seminar.

Another suspect in the case pending trial, Meryem Kurşun, also delivered her defense at Thursday's hearing. She said: “I applied to the military as a sociologist in 2005. I was informed by the military which websites I should follow [anti-government propaganda websites constructed to disseminate propaganda against the government with the intention of overthrowing it with the military], so I didn't have the ability to choose what news to post on the websites. These websites are not my personal websites; I only did what was done by the rest of the officers serving in the information support department of the military.”

The Sledgehammer plot allegedly sought to undermine the government to lay the groundwork for a coup d'état. The military, which has overthrown three governments since 1960 and pressured a conservative government to step down in 1997, has denied that such a plan existed. All suspects are accused of a failed attempt to destroy Parliament and overthrow the government. Such a charge calls for a jail sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

The Cihan news agency reported on Friday that the head of the İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court conducting the trial, Ömer Diken, said that there are still suspects pending trial who did not attend the hearing, although the court ordered district gendarmerie commands to make the suspects available the day before the hearing. In the Sledgehammer case, Article 250 of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) says that a person facing charges that fall under the scope of terrorist activities cannot benefit from any immunity, regardless of his or her rank.

Diken went on to say that the court will take necessary measures for the suspects who did not attend the hearing and the district gendarmerie commands that did not bring these suspects to court on the day of their hearing.

A full 171 suspects are under arrest and 41 who are pending trial attended the 75th hearing of the Sledgehammer case on Thursday. However, 78 of the suspects who are under arrest -- including War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanlı and former military prosecutor Ahmet Zeki Üçok -- did not attend the hearing. Gen. Levent Ersöz, who is currently in jail as a prime suspect in the investigation of Ergenekon and also pending trial as a suspect in the Sledgehammer case, as well as Col. Dursun Çiçek, who is in jail as part of an anti-government Internet campaign probe and is also pending trial as a suspect in the Sledgehammer case, did not attend the hearing on Thursday.

European court says Turkey’s Ergenekon arrests legal

Europe's top court has said the arrest of chief Ergenekon defendant Tuncay Özkan is legal, rejecting the plaintiff's complaint that he was deprived of his right to a fair trial.

 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) accepted Özkan v. Turkey despite the fact that Özkan had not exhausted all domestic judicial remedies, but rejected some of his core complaints, including his claim that he was denied the right to a fair trial and the legality of his arrest.

The ECtHR defined Ergenekon as a “terrorist organization attempting to topple the government by the use of force” and said it will wait until the judicial proceedings of Özkan's case are finished. The European court also rejected Özkan's claim that his right to freedom was violated. His complaint regarding the time he has spent in jail will be assessed later in an interim decision.

The European court also said there is “strong evidence” regarding the existence of the Ergenekon clandestine terrorist organization and rejected Özkan's demand to be tried without arrest. The court said Özkan's trial without arrest would make it difficult for security forces to fight organized crime.

ECtHR sources also told the Cihan news agency that Özkan v. Turkey might set a precedent for other Ergenekon-related complaints. The decision is also the first official assessment of the European court with respect to Ergenekon. Ergenekon is a clandestine network of individuals who appear to be nested within the state hierarchy and who are currently on trial for multiple counts of murder and causing public disorder that ultimately aimed to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

The court said Özkan was deprived of his freedom for being a member of a terrorist organization aiming to topple a democratically elected government. It also added that Özkan seized many documents that belong to security forces, directed a TV channel that broadcast programs designed by Ergenekon and kept a bomb in his own home.

The European court judges also said there are telephone transcripts of conversations between Özkan and military members of Ergenekon that strengthen the evidence against him and underlined that his arrest is legal. The Strasbourg-based court added that the arrest of Özkan by Turkish judicial authorities is based on “tangible evidence” and “legitimate reasons.”

Özkan, the former owner of the Kanaltürk TV station, was detained in İstanbul in late September 2008 as part of an investigation into Ergenekon. The court said Özkan's arrest is not in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The European court also rejected Özkan's allegation that he is not aware of what he has been charged with, claiming that İstanbul police informed him that he was under arrest for being a part of a coup plot and that he had been sufficiently informed of the accusations against him so as to be able to defend himself.