5 - Localised Paramilitarisation of the State (1992–9): The Case of Cizre

Summary

Introduction

İhsan Aslan and Ali Karagöz were detained in their homes in Cizre in the early morning on 27 December 1993. Both were originally from the village of Şax (Çağlayanköy) at the foot of the Cudi mountain in Cizre, in the neighbouring district of Şırnak. The state security forces had burned and evacuated their villages and homes because they refused to be Village Guards, so they had to move to Cizre centre, a small city (or large town) with a population of more than 100,000 people.

İhsan was working in his brother's shop, and Ali was an animal dealer. They were detained by a group from the Special Police Teams, the Village Guards and the gendarmerie commander, who was known as the commander of JİTEM in Cizre. Their wives said that they saw İhsan and Ali being taken to the Village Guard's shelter, not to the gendarmerie or police station. After being detained, their families never heard from them again. Their bodies have still not been found. When family members insisted on asking about the fate of those disappeared, they were threatened by Village Guards, and the prosecutors repeatedly rejected their petitions. For years they were unable even to search for their disappeared relatives due to fear.

Beşir Bayar (1993), İzzet Padır (1994), Abdullah Özdemir (1994), Ramazan Elçi (1994) and Abdullah Efelti (1995) are just a few examples of the many people disappeared in the same way as İhsan Aslan and Ali Karagöz in Cizre at that time. Their fate was part of a general pattern of enforced disappearances and unsolved murders that became routine in Cizre. In order to understand the paramilitary violence in Cizre in the 1990s, the working methods of paramilitary groups, their relations with each other and their policies against civilians, the stories of those who disappeared are important.

In the incident described above, members of three different paramilitary groups were involved: JİTEM, the Special Police Teams and the Village Guards. This also determined the characteristics of paramilitary groups active in Cizre in the 1990s. There are a few factors that present as important in examining Cizre as a case study.