It has been 21 years since 12-year-old Uğur Kaymaz was murdered in front of his home in the Qoser (Kızıltepe) district of Mêrdîn (Mardin) on 21 November 2004, one day after World Children's Rights Day on 20 November, along with his father Ahmet Kaymaz, who was also shot. Thirteen bullets were removed from the body of 12-year-old Uğur Kaymaz, while eight bullets were removed from his father's body. While an attempt was made to portray the incident as a “clash” by leaving a Kalashnikov rifle next to Uğur Kaymaz, the Mardin Governor's Office at the time released the photograph in question with the claim that “two terrorists preparing for action were killed”. However, it soon became clear that Uğur Kaymaz and his father were civilian citizens. 

 

As a result of the struggle of the Kaymaz family and their lawyers, a case was brought against the police officers who carried out the attack, Mehmet Karaca, Yaşafettin Açıkgöz (Serdar Gökbayrak), Seydi Ahmet Döngel and Salih Ayaz, on charges of “killing a person in a manner that would not reveal the perpetrator, exceeding the limits of legitimate defence”. The case, which was initially opened at the Mardin Heavy Penal Court, was later transferred to Eskişehir on “security” grounds. The four police officers were acquitted on the grounds that they were acting in “legitimate defence”.

 

Following the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the acquittal decision on the grounds of “legitimate defence”, and with domestic legal avenues exhausted, the case was referred to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR ruled that “the right to life had been violated” and ordered Turkey to pay compensation. Requests for a retrial were rejected. An individual application to the Constitutional Court was also rejected by Turkey on the grounds that “ECHR rulings are discretionary decisions.” Finally, the case was referred back to the European Court of Human Rights. However, the ECHR has yet to rule on the case.

 

‘THE DEMAND FOR JUSTICE CONTINUES’

 

Assessing the 21 years that have passed since Uğur Kaymaz's murder, the Human Rights Association (İHD) member and the Kaymaz family's lawyer Erdal Kuzu stated: “The demand for justice remains as strong as it was on the first day. The demand of society, of us, of the family for a punishment commensurate with the crime in this case retains all its urgency.”

 

 

Kuzu stated that the Uğur Kaymaz case is one of the most important examples of the policy of impunity in Turkey, saying, “If we look at it within the framework of the policy of impunity, it is clear that the state has systematically applied a policy of impunity in all cases involving violations of the right to life in Turkey, and has been doing so for a hundred years.”

 

JUDICIARY HAS BECOME A MECHANISM FOR ACQUITTING PERPETRATORS 

 

Kuzu pointed out that the policy of impunity has been systematically in place in Turkey since the founding of the Republic of Turkey, emphasising that criminal courts have not remedied this situation. Stating that a change in mentality is necessary, Kuzu said: "Criminal trials have become a mechanism that only acquits and protects those who violate the right to life here. We saw the most typical examples of this in the Uğur Kaymaz case. Although the Prime Minister at the time stated that a child of that age could not be a member of an organisation, the judicial bureaucracy continued to apply the system it had learned from state tradition in this case as well. Despite the reaction of all segments of society, the court acquitted those who violated Uğur's right to life."

 

Kuzu added: “The second important dimension of this case is that Uğur was Kurdish. Uğur's case actually reveals the situation of Kurds within a state system shaped by a single-type understanding. The reason behind the perpetrators of Uğur's crime being rewarded with impunity is that Uğur was Kurdish and lived in a Kurdish province.”

Kuzu stated that by failing to implement the ECHR rulings, the state was violating its own constitution, adding that the lack of a serious sanction mechanism had turned the Uğur Kaymaz case into one of constant rights violations.

 

‘NEW MECHANISMS MUST BE CREATED FOR JUSTICE’

 

Drawing attention to the expectations of the relatives of civilians whose right to life has been violated, just like everyone else, alongside the Peace and Democratic Society Process, Kuzu concluded: "Our hope is that when the process is successfully concluded, a platform will be created where such violations of the right to life can be discussed again and the victims can be heard again. Or, taking international examples into account, new mechanisms will be created to satisfy the sense of justice. Perhaps Uğur is the most symbolic example of this, but when we bring together the unsolved murders committed in the 1990s and the violations of the right to life that have occurred since 2015, we believe that new mechanisms need to be created within a new process to meet the demands of the victims, the people, society, or the segments that have suffered rights violations. We hope that in the coming days we will be living in a country where these mechanisms have been created. In this sense, as we remember Uğur once again, we would like to emphasise that the 21-year-old demand for justice is still being voiced by society.”

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal