Ankara Massacre victims' families face lawsuit in Turkey over commemoration ceremony

BURCU CANSU

burcucansu@birgun.net / @burcu_cansu

A lawsuit has been filed against 69 people who were blocked and battered by the police while they were trying to commemorate, in front of the Ankara train station, their relatives and friends who were killed in the October 10 Ankara massacre. The 69 people who were battered, dragged on the ground, and attacked by police that used teargas, are being accused of ‘going against the law on assembling’; ‘resisting against security on duty’; ‘damaging public property’; and, ‘insulting public workers’. And, the evidence is the ‘claims’ of the riot police, who is defined as the ‘victim’ in the indictment.

In the indictment, it is stated that the police had blocked the area on 10 October 2016 in line with the order of the governor’s office of Ankara, which at that time banned all meetings and assembling on the site ‘aside from an activity of a symbolic small group of civil society representatives’.

Although that particular decision of the governor’s office is claimed to have allowed only the first degree relatives of the killed to go to the train station, along with a small group of civil society representatives, to commemorate their family members, so many of the first degree relatives who were at the site on the 1st year anniversary of the massacre were not only given permission to enter the site but were also seriously battered by the police that day.

The indictment also says that the police ‘was obligated to enforce the decision’ even if the people trying to enter the site were ‘peaceful’.

Talking to BirGün about the day of the anniversary, head of the October 10 Peace and Solidarity Association, Mehtap Sakinci Coşgun, said: “That day (10 October 2016), they (authorities) made us go through a day as painful as the day of the massacre (10 October 2015). We were battered by the police. With a list in their hands, police just allowed those who had the same last name as the victims. And, in the indictment, there is a part that says the commemoration ceremony was ordered to be held by a ‘symbolic number of people’. What does ‘symbolic number’ mean for the greatest massacre of the Republic’s history? Doesn’t the state know what exactly happened? Even those who had been wounded in the attack were not taken to the site that day. And, each of those injured people lost a very close friend of theirs but they were not given the right to enter the site on the commemoration day…”

Questioning why they were ‘forced by the authorities to get permission to mourn’, Coşgun said: “In the indictment (against the family members), they talk about the ban of the governor. As KESK, DİSK, TMMOB, TTB, and 10 October Peace and Solidarity Association, we had held talks with the Interior Ministry, Ankara police department, and the governor’s office to inform them about our commemoration ceremony in advance. We did not ask for permission! My father lost his son-in-law in the attack but he was not taken to the site because he did not have the same last name as him. And, he was battered! While we haven’t filed a complaint as the battered families, the police officers who battered us have filed a complaint against us.”

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/yasamini-yitirenlerin-yakinlari-sanik-oldu-hem-dovulduler-hem-suclandilar-166501.html