A grave right for Cevzet Soysal

We said that the abduction, interrogation and execution of Cevzet Soysal was a typical and striking example of the countless terrorist activities of the FETÖ organization stretching back to the nineties.

Some reports describe the Cevzet Soysal murder as FETÖ's first murder, but when the activities this organized structure carried out in the Southeast in the nineties are brought fully under the lens, it is easily noticed that this was not the first. Because FETÖ operated with a logic of total domination of its area, it fought for a long time, with its own peculiar logic of slaughter and without anyone lifting a finger, against every structure that could be a rival to it. With its organization in the police, the judiciary, the civil administration and at the grassroots, it could eliminate anyone it wished without drawing any suspicion and pin the crime on someone else.

In the abduction of Cevzet Soysal, for example, it gave everyone the impression that JİTEM had carried it out. It was "Cemil Müdürleri" themselves who wanted the FETÖ-affiliated police to introduce themselves as JİTEM men. If a little light is shed on the actions there that were attributed to JİTEM for years but whose perpetrators were never found, traces of the same style can be found in most of them.

This period was the years when the full heat of 28 February made itself felt, and ostensibly the Fethullahists were in the sights of the 28 February people, but evidently the Fethullahists had also lulled the 28 February people into sleep on their feet and used them as they wished in line with their own goals and strategies. The Fethullahist police carried out the actions they wanted and, running the investigations into those actions themselves, billed the organizations they wanted. Sometimes the state, sometimes the TSK, sometimes JİTEM, sometimes Hizbullah and the Menzil group... Of course, in this atmosphere of sedition that had been set in motion, all these structures too did not refrain at times from taking roles according to the scenario FETÖ had written for them, or from carrying out actions on their own decisions.

Of course, FETÖ's ultimate strategic goal was for the Islamic segment in the region to fall thoroughly out of favor as a result of the murders it carried out, now from one side, now from another, in a way that set the organizations against one another. At the end of the day, in our cities such as Batman, Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van, since Islam and the concepts of violence, terror and dirty war had become practically identical, all the communities and structures acting in the name of Islam were being rapidly wiped from the field.

The only ones who remained ostensibly clean of this dirty, vile war environment were "the Cemaat," which ran this dirty war and bore guilt for every gram of the blood shed in it, and the PKK. When this picture is illuminated, the kind of cooperation that existed between the PKK and FETÖ is also seen clearly. The PKK's having been able to remain standing to this day despite all the counterterrorism programs is entirely due to these treacherous FETÖ-affiliated state officials. The traces they left in the name of the state also caused the image of the state as a whole to be tarnished.

For that reason, the information that has emerged so far regarding the Cevzet Soysal murder is very important for illuminating the dirty war lived in this period in all its dimensions. One must take hold of the end of this information and proceed, and never let go of its trail.

While doing all this, we said that the story of Cevdet abi and his children must of course not be forgotten. Indeed, it is not something that can be forgotten.

When Cevdet Abi was abducted and killed, his wife was left in the lurch with 6 children. There was no one left to bring bread home. The eldest child of the house, Mücahit, was a high school student in those years, and in order to support the home he left school and started working as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Today he continues his life as a carboy water distributor and continues to look for his father. Because his father's fate remained unknown for a long time, a death report could not be issued either, and therefore, since they could not obtain the retirement right from TPAO, where he had worked for 24 years, the whole family has been trying for years to carry on their lives in heavy poverty.

Some of the children, because of the story told to them for many years by the police, "your father was a victim of an intra-organizational execution," took offense at everything evoking religion and created distance.

Mücahit largely guessed what had happened, though at first he did not think of FETÖ; he said JİTEM. He wore down their doors. He chased the faintest clue, but until Sabri Uzun's book no clue took him anywhere. The financial hardships he suffered, the deprivations, all of them meant nothing to him, and he bore them all with a dignity that would shame humanity, and reduced all his demand to one: a grave for his father.

Only those who have lived through such a pain know how rightful, how human a demand this is.

What happened to Cevzet Soysal is no longer unknown today; it is known. But his grave is still not known. The officials of the period known to have been involved in his abduction, interrogation and murder were brought before the court in Batman yesterday. Unfortunately, they all displayed the typical behavior of FETÖ members. In statements given in unison, they fell mute, saying they had not seen or heard anything. 6 of these police officers, two of whom are already under arrest for FETÖ membership, were released under judicial control.

The family is rightly outraged. They receive with great sorrow the possibility that this hope they had caught, after years, of finding their father's grave may slip from under their hands before coming true.

Until Cevzet Soysal finds his grave, this file is not closed, and must not be closed.

I pray for abundant mercy from God upon Cevdet abi, whose bravery, blessed struggle, manliness, faith and now martyrdom I have witnessed, wishing that he may find his grave.