The file of Abdo Yağınlı, a shephers who had not been heard from since 19 September 1994 in Esilman (Gürgöze) rural neighbourhood of Mêrdîn's Şemrex (Mazıdağı) district was staled. On 4 September 1994, Yağınlı was detained on the allegation of "aiding an illegal organization" and was released. However, 15 days later of his release Yağınlı did not return from the pasture where he had gone out to graze his animals. Upon this, his relatives applied to the Mazıdağı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and asked for the fate of Yağınlı to be revealed. 

 

DEFENDANT RANGER CONFESSED

 

However, the prosecutor's office, which was conducting the investigation, sent the file to the Diyarbakır State Security Court (DGM) in 1995 without any justification, claiming that Abdo Yağınlı had been "abducted by the PKK". The DGM asked the District Gendarmerie Command about the fate of Yağınlı and no new information was included in the file. While no action was taken on the file, the family applied to the Human Rights Association (İHD) Mêrdîn Branch based on the statements of Mehmet Emin Çelebi, a ranger who was on trial in the Bilge (Zangırt) Village Massacre in 2009, in which 44 people were massacred. 

 

NO ACTION TAKEN DESPITE CONFESSIONS

 

Ranger Mehmet Emin Çelebi confessed that they killed and buried Abdo Yağınlı together with rangers Cengiz, Vedat, Burhan, Halim, Cemil, Abdurrahman and Osman Çelebi. Çelebi also drew a sketch of the place where they buried Abdo Yağınlı's body and stated that they killed Yağınlı on the allegation that he "helped the terrorist organization". A new investigation was initiated by the Mazıdağı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in 2009 in the context of Çelebi's statements, but the prosecutor's office soon decided "no prosecution" on the grounds of "insufficient evidence".

 

NO STEPS TAKEN FOR 30 YEARS

 

In 2011, the Mazıdağı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened a new investigation on the grounds of the same statements, and once again decided in a short period of time that there was "no grounds for prosecution". However, the file on Yağınlı's fate, which was sent to the Diyarbakır DGM in 1995 and continued by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office after the closure of the DGMs, was forgotten. Yağınlı's children then applied to the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in 2012, taking the statements and sketches reflected in the Bilge Village Massacre file on the grounds that their father was killed by village guards. However, in the intervening 12 years, the prosecutor's office did not consult the statements of the village guards who made confessions, nor did it bring Mehmet Emin Çelebi, a village guard, from prison to show the location indicated in the sketch and have him make a site reconnaissance.

 

RANGERS CONFESSED, PROSECUTOR SEARCHED FOR PKK MEMBERS

 

In the 12 years that have passed since 1995, when the family applied with new evidence following the confessions of the village guards, the prosecutor's office, despite the confessions of the village guards, issued a decision of "non-prosecution" with a single sentence, stating "unidentified persons who are members of the illegal PKK terrorist organization". In the justification of its decision dated 11 September 2024, the prosecutor's office stated: "Since the suspect has not been found despite all searches from the date of the crime until today, no procedural action has been taken to interrupt the statute of limitations, and the statute of limitations specified in Article 102/6 of the Turkish Penal Code has expired according to the type and amount of the penalty written in the article of the law that the crime touches...".

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal