Saturday Mothers: Where is Cüneyt Aydınlar?

At its now 883rd vigil against enforced disappearances, the Saturday Mothers’ Initiative called on the Turkish government to clarify the fate of Cüneyt Aydınlar. Aydınlar was a third-year economics student at Istanbul University when he was arrested at a bus stop in Bakırköy on Feb. 20, 1994, at the age of 22, and taken to the Gayrettepe political police station. The precinct was considered a notorious torture center at the time. Aydınlar was held in a cell there along with thirteen other people who had been taken into custody as part of the same operation. The arrests were not confirmed until February 27.

A day later, the group was transferred to a state security court (DGM, now abolished) – Cüneyt Aydınlar was not among them. On March 17, 1994, the group held its first consultation with its legal counsel. During this conversation, it made public that Aydınlar had been in custody and severely tortured until March 2, 1994. So massively that he could no longer walk. The police, on the other hand, claimed that the student had escaped on February 28, 1994, during a site visit. Nothing is still known about his further whereabouts.

“We assume that Cüneyt Aydınlar was extra-legally executed,” said human rights lawyer Eren Keskin at the vigil, which was held digitally due to the pandemic. Keskin represented the Aydınlar family and has conducted a variety of research in search of answers. She spoke with Esmer Bardakçı, the owner of one of the apartments where Aydınlar had been taken by police. “She expressed that he was in bad shape and had only been a shadow of his former self. He told her that it was the 25th apartment he had been dragged to and that he did not know why all this was happening. Much later, the same officers showed up at her house to force her to sign a witness statement. The paper said that Cüneyt Aydınlar had fled during the site inspection and that Esmer Bardakçı could testify to this.”

Keskin was also able to speak to children at the time who said they had observed Cüneyt Aydınlar being taken by police to a nearby construction site. Shortly thereafter, they heard gunshot sounds coming from that direction, but were afraid to go to the site. Years later, the Human Rights Association (IHD) was able to bring a court case against the police officers responsible, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence. The file in the case of Cüneyt Aydınlar was closed due to the statute of limitations. His body has not been found to this day.