Bones of the missing

3 ANSWERS

1. Guest2180
   

   The fate of many missing Kurdish politicians is still unknown
   
   The dig began in the midst of a dust storm.
   
   Under armed guard, a team of excavators opened up a disused well shaft behind an abandoned roadside restaurant in south-eastern Turkey.
   
   They were searching for the remains of hundreds of civilians who disappeared at the height of the Kurdish separatist conflict in this region in the 1990s.
   
   Many were last seen with members of Turkey's security forces.
   
   For many Kurdish families, the dig marked the start of a long-stalled search for justice. More than 70 have now applied to local lawyers for help to find their relatives.
   
   "Our first demand is to find the bones of the missing," lawyer Abdulaziz Tokay explains.
   
   "But the most important thing is to identify those responsible for their disappearance and punish them."
   
   The restaurant
   Mr Tanis is believed to have been buried behind this abandoned restaurant
   
   The dig at this site unearthed several bones and pieces of cloth. They have been sent for DNA testing while the search goes on.
   
   The Tanis family is one of many watching these unprecedented events closely.
   
   Eight years ago, Serdar Tanis had just opened a local branch of the pro-Kurdish HADEP party. On 25 January 2001, he was summoned to the regional gendarme base.
   
   Witnesses saw him enter the compound with a colleague, Ebubekir Deniz, before they both disappeared.
   
   For six days, staff at the base denied the politicians had ever been there. On the seventh day, they said the two had left to join separatist PKK insurgents in the mountains.
   
   "Serdar's only crime was to be district chairman of a perfectly legal political party," his brother Yakup says.
   
   "The Turkish state said there were no Kurds then, everyone was a Turk. But HADEP said: 'We exist and have rights.' The state saw that as a threat," he explains.

   Report (0) (0)  |   12 years, 8 month(s) ago  

2. Guest7523
   

   The fate of many missing Kurdish politicians is still unknown
   
   The dig began in the midst of a dust storm.
   
   Under armed guard, a team of excavators opened up a disused well shaft behind an abandoned roadside restaurant in south-eastern Turkey.
   
   They were searching for the remains of hundreds of civilians who disappeared at the height of the Kurdish separatist conflict in this region in the 1990s.
   
   Many were last seen with members of Turkey's security forces.
   
   For many Kurdish families, the dig marked the start of a long-stalled search for justice. More than 70 have now applied to local lawyers for help to find their relatives.
   
   "Our first demand is to find the bones of the missing," lawyer Abdulaziz Tokay explains.
   
   "But the most important thing is to identify those responsible for their disappearance and punish them."
   
   The restaurant
   Mr Tanis is believed to have been buried behind this abandoned restaurant
   
   The dig at this site unearthed several bones and pieces of cloth. They have been sent for DNA testing while the search goes on.
   
   The Tanis family is one of many watching these unprecedented events closely.
   
   Eight years ago, Serdar Tanis had just opened a local branch of the pro-Kurdish HADEP party. On 25 January 2001, he was summoned to the regional gendarme base.
   
   Witnesses saw him enter the compound with a colleague, Ebubekir Deniz, before they both disappeared.
   
   For six days, staff at the base denied the politicians had ever been there. On the seventh day, they said the two had left to join separatist PKK insurgents in the mountains.
   
   "Serdar's only crime was to be district chairman of a perfectly legal political party," his brother Yakup says.
   
   "The Turkish state said there were no Kurds then, everyone was a Turk. But HADEP said: 'We exist and have rights.' The state saw that as a threat," he explains.

   Report (0) (0)  |   12 years, 8 month(s) ago  

3. Guest1868
   

   The fate of many missing Kurdish politicians is still unknown
   
   The dig began in the midst of a dust storm.
   
   Under armed guard, a team of excavators opened up a disused well shaft behind an abandoned roadside restaurant in south-eastern Turkey.
   
   They were searching for the remains of hundreds of civilians who disappeared at the height of the Kurdish separatist conflict in this region in the 1990s.
   
   Many were last seen with members of Turkey's security forces.
   
   For many Kurdish families, the dig marked the start of a long-stalled search for justice. More than 70 have now applied to local lawyers for help to find their relatives.
   
   "Our first demand is to find the bones of the missing," lawyer Abdulaziz Tokay explains.
   
   "But the most important thing is to identify those responsible for their disappearance and punish them."
   
   The restaurant
   Mr Tanis is believed to have been buried behind this abandoned restaurant
   
   The dig at this site unearthed several bones and pieces of cloth. They have been sent for DNA testing while the search goes on.
   
   The Tanis family is one of many watching these unprecedented events closely.
   
   Eight years ago, Serdar Tanis had just opened a local branch of the pro-Kurdish HADEP party. On 25 January 2001, he was summoned to the regional gendarme base.
   
   Witnesses saw him enter the compound with a colleague, Ebubekir Deniz, before they both disappeared.
   
   For six days, staff at the base denied the politicians had ever been there. On the seventh day, they said the two had left to join separatist PKK insurgents in the mountains.
   
   "Serdar's only crime was to be district chairman of a perfectly legal political party," his brother Yakup says.
   
   "The Turkish state said there were no Kurds then, everyone was a Turk. But HADEP said: 'We exist and have rights.' The state saw that as a threat," he explains.

   Report (0) (0)  |   12 years, 8 month(s) ago