Biography
Born 1982 Aleppo/Syria
Place
Çukurca, Hakkari Province, Southeastern Turkey
Date
8-15 September 2009
Description
In September 2009, on a day between the 8th and 15th of September, chemical warfare agents were discharged by Turkish soldiers into a cave near the town of Çukurca, Hakkari province. PKK combatants Hanife Ali, Aliye Timur, Rızgar Askan, Aziz Özer, Ramazan Yıldız, Kahraman Şêx Ali, Yahya Musazade, and Salih Güleç died as a result.
In 2010 a delegation from the Federal Republic of Germany was in Turkey. It consisted of staff members of members of parliament and human rights activists. The delegation was presented with a series of photographs taken shortly after the autopsy of the bodies of the eight victims. The pictures are attached to this announcement. The expert in forgery of pictures, Hans Baumann, has carried out an assessment. He found no evidence of manipulation of the photographs. Lighting conditions, details of the corpses and camera data were consistent and practically impossible to falsify in this form.
Eyewitnesses told the delegation that they saw soldiers bringing gaseous substances into the cave and a short time later the eight victims were brought out motionless. Some of the already lifeless bodies were then additionally run over and/or shot at by armoured vehicles.
The photos were presented to a forensic doctor in Germany. In an interpretation of the pictures, he repeatedly identified the possible “effect of chemicals” or the possible “effect of a chemical substance” as well as injuries such as those caused by heavy vehicles by running over severed limbs. This confirms the eyewitness reports.
It is not possible to make any further findings at this stage, as the Turkish authorities are keeping the autopsy reports and files on this case confidential. Public demands from the political and parliamentary scene in the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Parliament for an inter national investigation have also been rejected.
