Human remains that might belong to dozens of victims of unsolved murders in Turkey’s Southeast in the 1990s have been found in a cave in southeastern Mardin province, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.
The remains were found by İrfan Yakut, who lives in Gulbiş, located in the district of Dargeçit, on Friday. Yakut’s father was a victim of the unsolved murders in the region in 1993.
Yakut told Mezopotamya he took photos and videos of the human remains and submitted them to the Dargeçit Public Prosecutor’s Office. He said he went into the cave after hearing rumors of human remains inside in the hope that his father’s remains might also be there. Yakut added that he counted at least 30 skulls.
Unsolved murders and disappearances were frequent occurrences in the 1990s when tension between two terrorist groups, Hizbullah and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), grew violent.
The disappearances are also known as the “white Taurus” (Beyaz Toros) incidents since gendarmerie intelligence and the JITEM counterterrorism unit put people into white Renault Toros cars and never brought them back. Some remains of people who were forced into those cars were found in forests, garbage cans and rural areas, and some people were never found.