It has been 28 years since Özgür Gündem newspaper's Urfa reporter Nazım Babaoğlu disappeared. Babaoğlu could not return from Siverek where a source called him and said he should get there immediately for a story on March 12, 1994. Babaoğlu who wrote an exposé about the rapist rangers two days before he went missing, revealed that a ranger carried out a raid on a teacher's house and sexually assaulted her.

 

Born in 1975, Babaoğlu was the youngest sibling of 7 children. He was a good friend, a hard working student and he did his best at work, according to his brother.

 

HE IS ALWAYS 19

 

After working at the İstanbul office of the newspaper, Babaoğlu returned to Urfa as a reporter after a while. Babaoğlu followed a story whereever it was, even in small villages. Hoping to be an expert on Middle East one day, Cemal Babaoğlu said he was 19 when he went to Siverek. Babaoğlu family and colleagues asked Tevfik Ziyaettin Akbulut, the then Governor of Urfa and AKP's 22nd, 23rd and 24th Tekirdağ Deputy, and applied to the Ministry of Interior. Stating that witnesses came forward even though the government insisted that Babaoğlu was not under custody, Babaoğlu said: "The witnesses gave their statements to the prosecutor, but what they told stayed on the paper and were not used."

 

ABDULLAH ÇATLI IN URFA ANTI-TERROR UNIT

 

Stating that witnesses came forward saying that his brother was detained by rangers affiliated with the Bucak tribe, Babaoğlu said the prosecutor did not bother to take their statements. Pointing out that they applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) through lawyers seeing that an investigation was not opened, and that their father was summoned to the Urfa TEM Branch shortly after the application, threatened and had a paper signed even though he was illiterate. Shortly after the case was accepted by the ECtHR, Babaoğlu told that their father was watching TV one day and saw that the man who threatened him at the Urfa Anti-Terror Unit was Abdullah Çatlı who was sentenced to death for his affiliation in the Bahçelievler Massacre. Cemal Babaoğlu said: "A person who is wanted with a red notice walks in an anti-terror unit and gives order to police officers. Isn't this wierd?"

 

GOVERNMENT DID NOT INVESTIGATE

 

What happened to Babaoğlu was never brought to light, however, those who were in charge at the time were promoted one by one. When Babaoğlu was lost, Tansu Çiller was the Prime Minister, Nahit Menteşe was the Minister of Interior, Mehmet Ağar was the Chief of Police, and Sedat Bucak, known as the leader of the Bucak tribe, was an MP for the True Path Party (DYP). Babaoğlu was one of the journalists targeted by the President of the time, Süleyman Demirel who said he was not a journalist but a militant. Babaoğlu was forced into dissappearance at a time when Demirel said he was responsible even for a sheep went missing on the otherside. The government that say they are responsible even for the sheep, turned a blind eye on thousands of people, and journalist who were dissappeared. Underlining that the government formed by Demirel, Ağar and Çiller was a government of terror, Cemal Babaoğlu said: "They were terrorising the people who believed in democracy. This is why they did not investigate the people who were dissappeared. Expecting justice from such people was impossible."

 

HIS MOTHER COULD NOT LIVE TO SEE THE DAY THE FAMILY GOT JUSTICE

 

Makbule Babaoğlu, mother of Nazım Babaoğlu once asked in the sit- in organised by the Saturday Mothers how the government was planning to make peace without giving her the bones of her son. Looking for her son her whole life, Makbule Babaoğlu did not see the day the family got justice. She lost her life in 2017 as a result of kidney failure. All she wanted was a gravestone she could visit. Cemal Babaoğlu who told that their mother never gave up looking for Nazım, said that when the authorities told her they could not find her son, she said: "Then give me his body so I can have a grave to visit." She knew he would never come back, but he fought hard for the same thing not to happen again."

 

'THE TARGET WAS THE FREE PRESS'

 

Underlining that the true target was the free press when Nazım was dissappeared, Cemal Babaoğlu said: "We were face to face with a gang. It was a terror government. The press was lying through its teeth. They kidnapped and executed journalists to spread fear. It has been 28 years. The free press tradition got stronger and stronger. Those who forcefully dissappeared my brother did not reach their goal. We are happy to see the growth of the free press tradition. Our Nazım is gone, but there are thousands of journalists following his path. We will never let him be forgotten."

 

 

MA / Emrullah Acar