SARYA DENİZ

News Center- On December 14, 2015, a 24-hour curfew was declared in Şırnak’s Silopi district. During the 37-day curfew, many human rights were violated in the district. 68 people, including Kurdish women politicians Pakize Nayır, Fatma Uyar and Sêvê Demir, were killed. More than 500 houses were destroyed. 57-year-old Taybet İnan, mother of 11, was one of the 68 people killed in Silopi. She was shot dead in the street by snipers while returning home from her neighbor on the 5th day of the curfew. Her dead body was left in the street for seven days and seven nights because the Turkish army did not allow her children. 10 bullets were found in her body. Her children did not sleep for seven days in order to protect their mother’s body from animals

Her brother-in-law, Yusuf İnan, was shot dead while trying to pull her body in. Her husband was shot in his arm. The last words of Mother Taybet were, “I am cold and I am very thirsty.” In an interview with NuJINHA, her relatives said, “We could not sleep for seven days in order to protect her body from animals. While she was lying there, we died 150 meters away from her.”

Despite the calls, her family could make their voices after seven days. They took her body but the torture against them continued. After 23 days, she was buried in Yenişehir District Cemetery. Only eight people were allowed to attend the funeral.

Story of Mother Taybet

The family of Mother Taybet was one of the families that left Silopi’s Xezayê village to the center of Silopi in 1988 due to the ongoing pressure on them. After living in the district center for a year, her son Ömer and her husband’s brother Avdi İnan were detained by police in a house raid without showing any reason. Ömer İnan was sent to the prison in Elazığ while Avdi İnan was sent to a prison in Mardin. In 1992, Mother Taybet lost her children named Esmer (10) and Botan (4) and her nephews named Ayaz (9), Şevzet (5) and Mehmet (10) when a landmine exploded in their neighborhood. While the İnan family was mourning for their children, riot police raided their home. Her husband Halit İnan was detained by the riot police and then sent to the prison in Mardin. After being held in prison for 11 months, Halit İnan was released. Then, he was arrested again and stayed in prison for three years and nine months.

The policy of impunity

An ineffective investigation was carried out in the death of Taybet İnan. In 2020, the prosecutor's office issued a 'permanent search warrant' to identify the perpetrators; however, the search warrant was commented as a policy of impunity. Until now, no progress has been made in the investigation launched by the Silopi Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the murder of Taybet İnan and Yusuf İnan.

The lawyers of the İnan family applied to Turkey’s Constitutional Court to investigate the murder of Taybet İnan and Yusuf İnan. The Constitutional Court has not issued a decision yet.