JINHA

AMED/ELÎH – In actions in the Northern Kurdish cities of Batman, Yüksekova and Diyarbakır, relatives of the disappeared held their weekly Saturday actions to demand that those who have been forcibly disappeared be found and the perpetrators of these crimes be tried.

The protest in the eastern city of Yüksekova was dedicated to the story of Şeref Şırrı. Şeref was tortured and killed by soldiers who opened fire on him as he was crossing the Turkish-Iranian border near his village in 1987 on a run to smuggle the diesel that was for Şeref, as for everyone in his village, the only source of income.

İHD Diyarbakır and the relatives of the missing gathered for their 327th Saturday in a row to demand justice for the missing. This week, İHD researchers related the story of Emin Altan, a Diyarbakır shopkeeper forcefully disappeared in 1996. Investigations started by the family and human rights defenders in 2009 have still not turned up Emin's remains. Emin's remains are suspected of being among those found in the wells used by brutal state counter-guerrilla unit JITEM to dispose of bodies, but the state has still not conducted a DNA test on the remains.

Tayyup Canan, son of assassination victim Abdullah Canan, noted at the Yüksekova gathering that the forced disappearances were not a human rights crime confined to the past, but that the current government continues to protect the perpetrators of the crimes and takes part in the violation of human rights.

Protestors also gathered in Batman for a weekly demonstration that called attention to continuing restrictions on the Kurdish language in Northern Kurdistan.

(ekip/fk/cm)