DİYARBAKIR -The IHD Diyarbakır Branch and the relatives of the disappeared asked about the fate of Mehmet Güler, who was never heard from again after he was kidnapped in 1997. 

 

The Human Rights Association (IHD) Diyarbakır Branch and the relatives of the disappeared carried out the 646th online action they carried out with the slogan ‘Let the missing be found, let the perpetrators be prosecuted’. In the action, asked about the fate of Mehmet Güler, who has been missing since December 1, 1997, in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır province.

 

Yusuf Erdoğan, a member of the IHD Board, told the story of Mehmet Güler.

 

Yusuf stated that 24-year-old Mehmet Güler, who lives in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır province, is married and has three children, and earns his living by working in a cargo company. Yusuf said that Mehmet went to the cargo company where he worked on December 1, 1997, the day after the census, and mentioned that Mehmet did not return home at the end of the day. Yusuf stated that the mother, Şefika Güler, who went to the cargo company, tried to get information from the cargo employees and that they said that Mehmet Güler went to Batman with another employee, Murat Güneş, in a cargo vehicle, met a friend there and did not return.

 

‘His mother applies to many places’

 

Expressing that a day passed but Mehmet Güler did not return home, Yusuf continued as follows:

 

‘’The mother, Şefika Güler, who started to worry, went to the cargo company and met with the office owner Murat Sütşurup. After a phone call which made by office owner, he tells her that her son is fine. Mother Şefika Güler, who thinks that her son will return home in a short time, goes to her home. After a few days passed, mother Şefika Güler, whose worries increased, could not get any results from her attempts. According to the expressions of Şefika Güler; Both Murats were known as Hezbollah supporters. Since her son Mehmet Güler had sympathy for those ideas for a while, he took part in the environments they were in, but later on, he had a disagreement. For this reason, mother Şefika Güler thinks that her son Mehmet Güler was kidnapped by the Hezbollah Organization in cooperation with these two people, whose names are Murat.

 

‘No more news’

 

Mother Şefika Güler made an application to the IHD Batman Branch and the Batman Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, filed a criminal complaint against two people whose names were Murat, and continued her search by placing advertise in various newspapers. In the operations carried out against Hezbollah in April and May 1999, many people were detained and arrested. There were people named Murat Sütşurup and Murat Güneş among those arrested on the alleged dates of being a member of Hezbollah. As of December 1, 1997, no news can be heard from Mehmet Güler again. Thousands of people have been disappeared or killed in this geography as a result of detentions or abductions by illegal structures like Mehmet Güler. As human rights defenders, we would like to state once again that we consider every action intended for the right to life to be a crime against humanity and that we do not consider such crimes subject to time out until the perpetrators and those responsible are exposed. As our branch and the relatives of the disappeared, we reiterate our demand for the disappearances to be found and the perpetrators to be prosecuted in our actions that we have carried out for 646 weeks.’’