Tuesday

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.

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