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.
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.
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