We hold events within the week of 17-31 May each year commemorating “International Week of the Disappeared”. We are here today to ask for the fate our beloved ones and bring the perpetrators to account. 

Wars and armed battles taking place all over the world leave ‘enforced disappearance’, ‘murder by unidentified assailants’, and ‘mass graves’. In countries such as Nazi Germany, Argentina, Chile, and recently in Sri Lanka, Syria and Iraq, states have been using enforced disappearance under detention systematically for destroying their citizens. In Turkey and Kurdistan, numerous violations against right to life and other gross human rights violations have been committed by the state and state-sponsored organisations within the war and intensive armed conflict continuing for the past 30 years,. These violations contain enforced disappearance under custody, extrajudicial killings, unsolved political murders, and mass graves. It is estimated that 17.000 people were either disappeared enforcedly or murdered by unknown assailants after detained from their homes, workplaces, streets or during road checks or military operations.

According to the  International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance article 5, “The widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity as defined in applicable international law and shall attract the consequences provided for under such applicable international law”. It is very clearly stated in the international law and Turkish National Penal Code that lawsuits against crimes against human rights are not subject to statute of limitations. State Parties are responsible for taking necessary precautions in order to prevent enforced disappearance crime in the territory under their jurisdiction. However, Turkey insistently avoids facing the suffering and refuses to sign the Convention.
  

Although disappearances in detention have been so common and systematic during the period of war and armed conflicts, thorough investigations have not been conducted, and most investigations were set back for ages, and were closed on account of 20-year statute of limitations.

Some of the details and the documents within the indictments revealed important facts and data related to the crimes committed by the state and/or state-sponsored groups or organisations. However, some of the practices (for example, long-lasting proceedings, convicts being released pending trial, not collecting evidence in a timely manner, the cases transferred to remote cities for security concerns) have indicated that the aim of the state was not to punish the criminal but to conduct perfunctory trials. They have presented impunity for perpetrators as systematically as have they managed those enforced disappearances. Handling the ‘enforced disappearance’ crimes as isolated and rare incidents and applying the 20-year statute of limitations constitute the most apparent example of impunity policy.
 
Starting with 1915 Armenian Genocide in our geography, followed by 1937-38 Dersim Massacre, enforced disappearances are a reality that Turkey has to face. That is because we know that nowhere along this land may true justice be found unless Turkey confronts the reality of mothers who have been trying to find the bones of their disappeared children murdered by unidentified assailants. Therefore, as human rights defenders, we would like to state that the only way to build permanent peace in this country is by confronting its past. The Government must do its part in order to investigate those unsolved matters thoroughly and must resolve the fate of the disappeared and find the perpetrators, which would at least alleviate the grieving mothers’ pains partly. 

In many cities such as Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Batman, Cizre, İzmir, Yüksekova, the relatives of the disappeared have been holding sit-in strikes. They have been continuing non-stop; for example, 687th week in İstanbul and 485th week in Diyarbakır in succession. But for “security reasons” and pursuant to the state of emergency, democratic events and demonstrations have been banned by the Governors, which put a barrier against the relatives, who want to make their voice public. In the end, the call on the demand for justice is caged indoors instead of being free in the streets and squares.

Diyarbakır Governorate has banned all open-air demonstrations and events on 16 Agust 2016 until further notice. Hence, the sit-in strikes that have been held nonstop for weeks have to be done inside the HRA office. All the applications made by the HRA and relatives of the disappeared were dismissed. Unfortunately, the event, which was held in front of the Right to Life Monument in Koşuyolu Park for years, has to be conducted in the HRA Diyarbakır Branch building for the last 91 weeks.
   
The relatives of the disappeared who have not stepped back from their seeking justice come rain or shine. They are undoubtedly determined to keep going. We would like to call on human rights defenders, NGOs, and everyone conscientious to take part in our efforts in search of justice. Thereby, we invite everyone to HRA Diyarbakır Branch office at 12.00 on Saturday to be in solidarity with the relatives of the disappeared people.

 We, the human rights defenders, would like to restate:

* First of all, the fate of the disappeared must be uncovered and the Government must make public the archives in order that the perpetrators of the unsolved murders can be caught.

* Opening unmarked graves while searching the disappeared must be conducted pursuant to the relevant international laws, and using heavy construction machines and damaging the remains of the deceased must be prevented.

* We call on the Government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and act accordingly.

 * We call on the members of jurisdiction to abstain from systematic impunity policy and conduct effective investigation according to international documents which have ruled enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity, and to ignore statute limitations for these kinds of crimes in accordance with the international law.
*In order not to experience similar suffering, truth must be brought out, and a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” must be established in order to bring permanent peace and tranquillity.  

  
DIYARBAKIR BAR ASSOCIATION
DIYARBAKIR MEDICAL CHAMBERS
HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, DIYARBAKIR BRANCH-İHD
HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF TURKEY-DIYARBAKIR OFFICE- TİHV
HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE, DIYARBAKIR REPRESENTATIVE’S OFFICE