ANKARA –  Hakan Çavuşoğlu, head of the Parliamentary Human Rights Inquiry Commission, who rejected the demands of the opposition to establish a sub-commission to investigate the incident of the dropping of two citizens from helicopters in Van, stated that they will wait for the results of the administrative and judicial investigations launched into the incident.

 

The meeting of the Human Rights Investigation Commission of the Parliament was the scene of discussions about the failure to establish a sub-committee on the incident in the Çatak district of Van, where two citizens were thrown out of a helicopter by the soldiers.

 

Speaking at the commission meeting, HDP Muş MP Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit criticized that a commission is not being established to investigate the incident. Koçyiğit said: "Unfortunately, our commission did not call any meeting on this issue and was indifferent to the call to establish a sub-commission or to examine the event on site. In this sense, I would like to express that we can consider this as a negligence of the commission's duties and responsibilities."

 

Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Inquiry Commission and CHP Istanbul Deputy, said that he made a proposal for the establishment of a sub-committee for the throwing of Şiban and Turgut from the helicopter. Tanrıkulu, who wanted the motion to be put on the agenda and to be approved, noted that the incident should be investigated by the commission outside the judiciary.

 

HEAD OF THE COMMISSION: WE WILL WAIT FOR THE RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION

 

Stating that both administrative and judicial investigations are currently ongoing, Head of Commission AKP's Hakan Çavuşoğlu stated that the commission would not be able to make any suggestions, recommendations or research.

 

Çavuşoğlu said, “In this sense, we will wait for the result of the investigation. If a new situation arises, of course, the commission will always have its own agenda and will do its work if necessary."

 

Reacting to Çavuşoğlu, HDP's Koçyiğit said: "Even if the judicial process continues, this commission has no obstacle in conducting on-site investigations and preparing reports. You know this very well that the investigation we wish to conduct is not an intervention against the judicial process but a wish to be a remedy to to public outcry and to bring the issue to the agenda if such violation did occur."

 

GERGERLİOĞLU: I WISH YOU HAD GONE TO VAN

 

HDP Kocaeli Deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu stated that the head of the commission should go to Van and said: “What happened in Van? I wish you would just go and ask. I went there and spoke to Servet Turgut's brother, Naif Turgut. He is a senior citizen sewing sacks. He was sewing sacks when the soldiers came. They got on the helicopter perfectly fine and turn up at the hospital 3 days later with broken bones, bleeding internally. These all happened in front of the villagers. Parliament's Human Rights Committee is still not working on this issue or preparing a report. You say there is no systematic torture in Turkey, but you see there is. In the prison, in the security directorates, there is torture."