How dare you?

“I received 750 grams of my child.” That is how the mother of a killed soldier began her words.

“When I sent him to his military service he was around 70 kilos. I gave birth to a child of 3.5 kilos and now I get him back for burial weighing 750 grams. I’m begging you, put yourselves in our shoes. Do whatever you have to do to investigate,” she said.

Satı Ergenç is one of 25 mothers who lost their sons in an ammunition depot explosion on Sept. 15, 2012 in the Central Anatolian province of Afyonkarahisar.

These quotes are taken from the 16th trial of the case into the explosion, which took place at a military court. The trial did not ease the pain of the parents or loved ones of those killed, as the hearing simply ended with a decision to “investigate the relationship between FETÖ and the explosion,” referring to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

Later, the concept of military courts became history in Turkey through a state of emergency decree law. The files were thus handed to civilian courts.

Civilian court hearing

Recently, five years after the incident, relatives of those killed flocked to the civilian court for the next hearing. They hoped they would be able to glimpse the truth of the incident for the first time. They hoped they could overcome the barriers they could not overcome at the military courts.

What happened?

We can simply say that the relatives and friends of those killed were subjected to such a tragedy that they were almost thankful that they were not beaten up.

They were scolded by the prosecutor. All their requests were denied. Their pain was deepened.

They arrived at the court before dawn, waited at the entrance for hours, and the trial began 1.5 hours late. And of course the three suspects on trial without detention were not present.

We read in news reports how Zekai Fırat Düğer, the father of one of those killed, said they were scolded by officials and thrown out the courtroom.

“They don’t have the right to yell ‘Get them out of there!’ to the parents of a martyr. We gave our sons away but they were torn to pieces. They collected our son’s body parts from 20 kilometers away from the site of the blast. Do we deserve this?” he said.

Carousel of unanswered questions

The heads of those who lost their loved ones in the blast are still full of questions.

Do you not respect the memory of those sleepless children, working like slaves, and killed.

OK, intelligence reports indicate no FETÖ connections to the incident. So what happened there?

Who failed to do their duty? Whose short-sightedness and carelessness caused these children to depart this world? Who will answer to those parents?

The panel of judges in the case automatically denies all requests coming from the martyrs’ relatives.

How dare they? Tell me.

How can you say there is no need to investigate when a mother asks why just 750 grams of her killed child were brought back to her?