At Galatasaray Square in Istanbul, the Saturday Mothers once again demanded clarification about the fate of people who disappeared in state custody. This week’s vigil focused on the case of Kurdish man Ilyas Eren, who was abducted 29 years ago in the province of Amed (tr. Diyarbakır) and has been missing ever since.
Ilyas Eren was originally from the Kulp district and worked as a farmer. He was a father of eight children and lived with his family in the hamlet of Rindik, part of the village of Dêlit (Yeşilköy). In the early 1990s, he was detained multiple times and subjected to torture, in one instance for several weeks. The reason was his refusal to serve as a village guard for the Turkish state.
After Dêlit was destroyed by the Turkish army in 1993, Eren migrated with his family to the center of Kulp. On March 11, 1997, he was waiting at the bus station in Amed when he was abducted by men posing as police officers. Witnesses reported that he was forcibly pushed into a vehicle. This was the last time he was seen alive.
According to Jiyan Tosun, head of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD), witnesses identified the vehicle as one linked to the head of the largest village guard association in Kulp. The family immediately turned to the judiciary, but no effective investigation followed. Leads were not pursued, and those responsible were not prosecuted. Ilyas Eren has never been found.
Recognition by the European Court of Human Rights
“No effective investigation was conducted. The truth was not uncovered, and those responsible were not brought to justice,” said Jiyan Tosun. The case was eventually closed without result. After exhausting domestic legal remedies, the family applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). There, the Turkish government acknowledged that no effective measures had been taken to clarify Eren’s fate and that the right to life had been violated.
Criticism of impunity
“However, this had no consequences,” Tosun emphasized. The Eren case was closed due to the statute of limitations. The human rights advocate accused the state and judiciary of systematically contributing to impunity in cases of enforced disappearance. “But we will not stop demanding justice.” The vigil ended with the laying of red carnations.
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