Main JITEM trial opens today

The Ankara Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) held a press conference at the branch building ahead of the opening of the JİTEM Main Case, which includes the Musa Anter Case, which will be held at the Ankara 6th High Criminal Court. The trial will open today.

Musa Anter’s son Dicle Anter, İHD Co-Chair Öztürk Türkdoğan, Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES) Co-Chair Selma Atabey, Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) Ankara Co-spokesperson Fikret Çağlayan, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ankara Provincial Co-chair Pakize Sinemillioğlu and HDP Bingöl Deputy Erdal Aydemir spoke at the press conference.

IHD executive, Nuray Çevirmen, said that in the 30 years since the murder of Musa Anter, despite open confessions and clear evidence, the case was extended as a result of a policy of impunity. Stating that the case faced the risk of statute of limitations, Çevirmen said: “The voluminous balance sheet of the violations of the right to life in the 90s in the form of murder, kidnapping and loss, the investigations and lawsuits that were opened with difficulties, have been left largely inconclusive because of the impunity policy pursued by the government.”

Noting that the source of many problems, including vital and ecological problems, is insistence on security policies, Çevirmen added: “The solution is clear, it is necessary to return to peace policies as soon as possible, to face the pains of the past and the present, to remove the obstacles to the emergence of the truth, and to ensure justice.”

Call to attend the hearing

Çevirmen said: “We call on all labor and democracy forces, human rights defenders, everyone who wants peace, freedom and democracy, parties, unions and chambers to attend the hearing. In addition, our association will request to participate in the hearing as an intervening party.”

Dicle Anter, who took the floor afterwards, said that “the enlightenment of my father murder means the enlightenment of all the unsolved people in Turkey. A murder committed by criminal organizations of the deep state. The institution called JİTEM has not yet be exposed completely, yet, it has a founder and employees, but they say there is no JİTEM.”

Anter said that in the case involving the killing of his father “the statute of limitations is a crime against humanity. People killed by the hand of the state cannot be forgotten. The state itself has to reveal the truth with their own hands. If Erdogan says today, ‘Enlighten the Anter murder,’ it will be done tomorrow. But no one has this courage.”

Emphasizing the policies of impunity in Turkey, IHD Co-Chair, Öztürk Türkdoğan, pointed out that these policies can be rectified by establishing justice commissions and confronting the past. Öztürk said: “The murder of Apê Musa coincides with the beginning of the dark period. Our responsibility is definitely not to leave this murder unpunished. It is a crime against humanity. It is a murder committed for political purposes. Therefore, there is no statute of limitations for us. The perpetrators will be exposed sooner or later.”