Bones found in cesspool belong to Turkish man missing under detention 19 years ago

MARDİN – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

The human bones that have been found in a cesspool in the southeastern province of Mardin’s Kızıltepe district belong to an 18-year-old man who went missing in 1995 under detention.

Abdurrahman Olcay was 18 when he was detained by gendarmerie forces on Oct. 20, 1995 in the Dargeçit district of Mardin. Olcay never returned afterward and was recorded as missing.

In the excavations in the Aysun village of the district of Kızıltepe in July 2013, human bones were found in a cesspool. The bones were sent to forensics and it was revealed through DNA tests that they were Olcay’s remains.

Human Rights Association (İHD) Mardin branch head Erdal Kuzu held a press conference with Olcay’s father Mehmet Ali Olcay and sister Meryem Olcay on Nov. 15.

Kuzu said Abdurrahman Olcay was one of the seven people who went missing under detention on the same date and at the same location. These people were murdered by JİTEM, an alleged clandestine intelligence unit within the gendarmerie whose existence has never been confirmed by the military, he added. During excavations in different cesspools, bones belonging to five of these people were found, while the other two are still being searched for, he added.

“The suspect in all of these cases regarding these missing people is the state,” he added. The Olcay family was furious and heartbroken.

Mehmet Ali Olcay said he wants the state to find his son’s murderers, speaking in Kurdish during the press conference.

Meryem Olcay said she is heartbroken and shocked after learning that her brother was found in a cesspool.

“I was still hopeful that my brother was alive and would return someday after 19 years. But at some point I was preparing myself for the news of his death. I am shaken to hear that his bones were found in a cesspool. I was ready to hear about any death, but not this one. How could a person become that wild and possess such a hatred? I cannot accept a death in a cesspool. I demand the prime minister find the killers,” said Meryem Olcay in Kurdish in the same conference.

Many people went missing under detention in the 1990s with charges of being a member of or helping the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country.