MERSİN – Osman Şiban who was thrown from the helicopter by the soldiers carrying out an operation in the Çatak district of Van said: "They told them from the radio that there were terrorists in the helicopter. The other side said 'get them out'. Then they first threw the bodies out of the helicopter and then they pushed us and we hit the ground."
Osman Şiban who was seriously injured after being tortured by the soldiers under custody spoke to Mesopotamia Agency (MA) about what happened.
'THEY WERE CONSTANTLY BEATING US'
Speaking about the day of the incident, Şiban said he was sitting in front of his house with the kids and some other villagers and drinking tea. Stating that he saw Servet Turgut being brought by the soldiers were coming towards them, Şiban said: "We saw that they were bringing Servet. There were 6-7 soldiers with him. They shouted my name. I raised my hand. They asked Servet if I was really Osman Şiban 3 times. He said yes. They asked for my ID card. I gave it to them. They asked me if I knew Servet Turgut. I told them I knew Servet. Then they swooped down on me and dragged us away. They dragged us out of the village. They took us back to the haystack and set it on fire.There were a lot of soldiers there. The smoke was rising. Then the helicopter arrived. There were soldiers in it too. A soldier who got off the helicopter said: "Did you bring the sons of bitches?" The other one said he did. Then they jumped us and beat us. They were punching us in the face and in the head and kicking us."
'THEY THREW THE BODIES OUT OF THE HELICOPTER AND PUSHED US FROM THE HELİCOPTER'
Şiban said: "They forced us into the helicopter. We saw that there were two bodies there. They were not soldiers. They kept hitting me and shouting that it is forbidden to look around. They were speaking to someone on the radio. The person on the radio told them to land in the barracks. When we were closed to that place they called the barracks, the soldiers in the helicopter told them that there were 'terrorists' in the helicopter. The other side said 'get them out'. Then they threw the bodies out of the helicopter and then pushed us off the helicopter too. When we hit the floor we saw that we were surrounded by a lot of soldiers. I heard one of them saying 'the terrorist is alive!'. Then they swooped on us..They beat us a lot. I passed out. I don't remember what happened after that." Explaining that he was finally able to feel like himself for the last few days, said: "I wasn't able to remember anything before that. It is finally coming back to me. I knew the people who visited me but I saw four of each."
MA / Ömer Akın