ISTANBUL - Saturday Mothers asked this week about the perpetrators of Özgür Gündem Newspaper Bitlis reporter Ferhat Tepe, who was abducted and murdered 28 years ago.

 

Saturday Mothers carried out the 854th week of their weekly protests, which they organized with the slogan ‘’The perpetrators are determined, where are the missing’’, online due to the coronavirus epidemic, in order to ask about the fate of their relatives who disappeared in custody and to demand the punishment of the perpetrators. This week, the perpetrators of 19-year-old Ferhat Tepe, the Bitlis reporter of Özgür Gündem, who was abducted and murdered on July 28, 1993, were asked.

 

Ferhat Tepe’s family took the floor in the statement. Ferhat’s mother, Zübeyde Tepe, stated that she has been fighting for the prosecution of her son’s murderers for 28 years. Stating that the perpetrators are not prosecuted, Zübeyde stated that there is no justice in Turkey. Zübeyde said: ‘’If there was justice, the murderers would have been found. What was my son’s crime? I am going to ask this them now. Why did they kill my child? I will ask this until the end. Today, mothers fighting in Galatasaray Square are on trial, but why are the perpetrators not prosecuted? As Saturday Mothers, we are always with our children. Let the murderers of our children be found, put on trial.’’

 

‘We will not give up on our cause’

 

Speaking later, Ferhat’s father, İsak Tepe, stated that they have been standing and fighting since the day his son was murdered. İsak said: ‘’Those murderers did this with the support of the state. When I went to look for my son, they said to me, ‘Give us one billion money, resign from the party, close the party and we will handover your child to you’. However, when they told me this, I learned that they had already murdered my son. In 1994, we conveyed all the evidence and everything we learned to the Ministry of Justice. It was the Brigade Commander of that day who targeted my child. He killed tens of people in that area. He was targeting people and getting them killed. Since that day, we have started actions so that the murderers will be tried, but none of them has been tried, not even a case has been opened. 20 years later, the case was dropped. So far, no lawsuit has been filed against those murderers who have murdered 18.000 people, and families are being prosecuted. It opens up to me too. For giving a speech. Now, a lawsuit has been filed against Saturday Mothers because they are protesting there. In this country, the murderers of our children are not prosecuted, but people who are looking for their children or who want the murderers to be tried are arrested and they want to be punished. How can people be satisfied in such a system or how is justice applied? This is our problem. We will not give up on our cause. Those who do not do this should be ashamed.’’

 

‘We do not accept timeout’

 

Ferhat Tepe’s sister, Ayşe Tepe, stated that they do not accept the timeout in crimes against humanity, and said: ‘’We are fighting for the right and the law. We want impunity to end, we want the state to confront and the perpetrators to be tried. We are not giving up on Galatasaray Square either.’’

 

‘We will not give up for demanding justice’

 

Zeynep Ceren Boztoprak, who then read the press text, stated that all the applications made by the Tepe family regarding the prosecution of the perpetrators remained inconclusive. Zeynep Ceren said: ‘’The statements of many witnesses who said they saw Ferhat during torture interrogation at Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Regimental Command were not taken. The family's allegations against Korkmaz Tağma were not included in the investigation. The Elazığ Chief Public Prosecutor's Office deliberately closed the investigation by timeout without collecting the evidence, listening to the witnesses, and making no attempt to shed light on the incident. We do not accept the closing of the Ferhat Tepe file, in which the ECtHR and the Constitutional Court have recorded that the state has not fulfilled its obligation of effective investigation, due to the timeout. No matter how many years pass; For Ferhat Tepe, for all our missings, we will not give up on Galatasaray, our meeting place with our disappeared people, which has been forbidden to us for 155 weeks, asking for justice, reminding that the state has to act within the legal norms.’’