COPENHAGEN, Denmark - On Mother's Day in Turkey on Sunday, a group of Kurdish mothers took to the streets to demand answers about their missing relatives.
In Istanbul, as well as Hakkari and Diyarbakir in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast, relatives of missing Kurds, known as the “Saturday Mothers,” gathered and carried photographs of their loved ones.
Tahir Elci, president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, criticized the Turkish government for failing to prosecute the perpetrators behind 17,500 Kurdish intellectuals, journalists, businessmen and politicians who disappeared and probably died in custody in the 1990s.
“If the state wants, they can easily find the perpetrators. They should make an objective and neutral investigation,” Elci told Rudaw.
He said he hopes that the West and the European Union, which Turkey is eager to join, will increase pressure on Turkey for answers.
"The West should encourage Turkey to take steps to investigate the disappearances and prosecute those responsible for these atrocities," Elci said.
Resmiye Bahram, whose son Sirin disappeared in 1996, is among the many Kurdish mothers in Turkey seeking an answer to what happened to her 18-year-old son. He has been missing since the night that Turkish gendarmerie forces raided the family’s home in Diyarbakir and arrested the youth.
”After two days, police said they knew nothing about his disappearance,” Bahram told Rudaw. Another of her sons joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and died there. His body was never returned to the family.
"When a family member disappears it affects you so much that it cannot be described. One died a martyr and he has no grave," she said.
Despite repeated attempts by Rudaw, it was not possible to get a comment from the Turkish authorities about the fate of the missing Kurds.
Mehmet Necef, associate professor at Southern University in Denmark, told Rudaw that during the 1990s war between the PKK and the Turkish army, thousands of Kurds disappeared in southeastern Turkey.
Since then, there has been no word about them. According to Necef, the crimes were committed by the “The Deep State” in Turkey, a group composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services, military and security.
“Over the years this group murdered -- with the help of many local police chiefs -- thousands of Kurdish activists, when they thought it was too complicated to go through the established channels,” he explained.
So far, the state has investigated about 12 or 13 cases, Necef stated. Due to the silence of Turkish authorities, many other relatives took their cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which found Turkey guilty of several crimes.
For instance, the ECHR cited the case of Ali Tektag, concluding that Turkey "failed to protect” his life. He disappeared in 1994, when four armed men identifying themselves as police took him away.
According to Necef the state is very reluctant to investigate the disappearances because it would be too incriminating: those responsible are likely to have ties to the state itself.
“The murders were committed by either officers or state organized militia groups against Kurds,” Necef said. He said the disappeared were suspected of being either PKK guerrillas or sympathizers.
Sardar Sharif, a PhD researcher in international relations at the University of Dohuk, agreed with Necef.
“Many of those killed were journalists and intellectuals,” Sharif said. "The Kurdish journalists glorified the PKK and revealed incriminating information about the Turkish military, after which they disappeared and were killed," Sharif told Rudaw.
Bahram, who still mourns for her missing son, said she has vowed never to give up.
"Until my last breath, I will be looking for my son. If he does not live, I demand his bones."
