URFA - Those who lost their relatives in the Pirsûs Massacre have been struggling for 8 years to find the real perpetrators. Yasemin Boyraz, who lost her mother in the massacre, said: "I lost my mother at the age of 31, I still see myself at the age of 31, I did not grow up."

 

Eight years have passed since the bomb attack carried out by ISIS against young people who gathered in the garden of Amara Cultural Center in the Pirsûs district of Riha(Urfa) on July 20, 2015, upon the call of the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF). While 33 people lost their lives in the massacre, more than 100 people were injured. At the 21st hearing on the massacre, held on October 22, 2021, the court board sentenced the only detained defendant, Yakup Şahin, who was never brought to the courtroom, to 34 aggravated life imprisonment. The trial continues in terms of the fugitive defendants Deniz Büyükçelebi and İlhami Balık.

 

Two months after the death of 33 young people, the Suruç Families Initiative was established in order to hold the massacres to account and not to make the massacred people forget. Families, who participated in all the proceedings regarding the case, have been voicing their demands for justice from the courtrooms where no defendants were brought against all obstructions for 8 years. In Riha's Curnê Reş (Hilvan) district, families attended all hearings held from the prison campus, summer and winter. Families who wanted the perpetrators to be punished became "defendant" because they voiced their demands for justice. A lawsuit was filed against 9 people who reacted to the court in the 21st hearing of the trial held at the Urfa 5th High Criminal Court against 33 people who lost their lives in the suicide bomb attack organized by ISIS. In the indictment, the Chairperson of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) Şahin Tümüklü, Çağla Seven, Koray Türkay, who was injured in Suruç, and the families of those murdered in Suruç, Feti Aydın, Sultan Yıldız, Mehmet Özkan, Özgen Sadet, Yusuf Yurtgül, Yasemin Boyraz, were sentenced to 125 (punished with a fine from three months to two years) on the allegation that they "insulted" the court committee.

 

Yasemin Boyraz, who lost her son Çağdaş Aydın in the massacre and was injured while seeking justice, and Yasemin Boyraz, who lost her mother Bahar Nazegül Boyraz in the massacre, said that the real perpetrators have been protected for 8 years.

 

'EVIDENCE IS COVERED WITH DOCUMENTS'

 

Feti Aydın, a member of the Suruç Families Initiative, said: "None of their requests from the courtrooms had been accepted until today. It's been 8 years, but there has been no progress in our case. Our lawyers had various demands, these demands were voiced at each hearing. We asked why the missing footage of each trial wasn't released. We asked why Abdullah Ömer Aslan, a motorcycle rider who had been left at the back door with his beard cut, and whose bag had an ISIS flag, was not prosecuted. The reason why this case is out of place is because our demands were ignored. Lawyers uncovered evidence with documents. While we were being searched with a red notice, we discovered that the fugitive accused İlhami Bali was being treated in a state hospital. It has been proven by dozens of documents that the murderers are everywhere. Despite this, there are no murderers of our children."

 

'WE WILL CONTINUE THIS STRUGGLE UNTIL THE END'

 

Stating that it is our duty to continue the struggle of our children, Aydın said: “We will continue this struggle until the end. The families are sued during this struggle, while the murderers should be punished. Our case is currently ongoing. Our lawyer Gülhan Kaya is currently under arrest. While the suspects of this massacre are walking around, families are waiting for justice in the courtrooms. All sorts of things are being done to deter families from fighting for justice; however, we will never stop commemorating our 33s on the street and in the courtrooms. We will follow them until the end."

 

MA / Emrullah Acar