Lawyer Erdal Kuzu speaks to Aydın Tonga: The Bilge Village file was closed, the truth was buried

When the guests gathered in the evening for the engagement ceremony of 25-year-old Sevgi Çelebi and 27-year-old Habib Arı, they were unaware of what was about to happen.

When the calendar turned to May 4, 2009, this engagement held in Bilge Village, located in the Mazıdağı district of Mardin, would be etched into Turkish history with shame a few hours later. Or rather, into the memories of those who survived…

According to the account of Cengiz Çelebi, an eyewitness to the event, around 20:40, Mehmet and Orhan Akyol, along with Hacı Mehmet Çelebi, nicknamed the "sheikh," arrived at the house where the men were gathered, carrying weapons. At that moment, the men were about to begin their prayers. Afterward, scenes reminiscent of a war zone unfolded inside the house as the armed individuals began firing Kalashnikovs at the group. Simultaneously, the same armed attack was carried out on the side where the women were located. The perpetrators were familiar, and even relatives.

By the end of the day, a total of 44 people, including 17 women—seven of whom were children and one of whom was pregnant—and the village imam Hacı Kazım Ozan, were killed, while three people, including two children, were injured. The engaged couple was also among those killed.

The film "Kurtuluş," which was released recently under the direction of Emin Alper, focuses on the Bilge Village massacre mentioned above. After the film was released, some writers and journalists expressed their criticisms of the film based on the Bilge Village massacre. So, how was this event discussed in those days, and what was said about the massacre in question?

The reports released by the Human Rights Association (İHD) right around that time provide answers to these questions. I will share my interview with Erdal Kuzu, the then-Mardin Branch President of the İHD and one of the individuals who prepared this report, in a moment. But before moving on to that, I want to mention another report dated May 21, 2019. The report bears the signatures of seven institutions, primarily the İHD, KESK, and Halkevleri. According to Hasip Aktaş, the then-Mayor of Mazıdağı, who was one of the individuals consulted for the report, the root of the atrocity lies not in tradition, blood feuds, or land disputes, but in the Kurdish issue. Aktaş states that 6 people were also killed in Bilge Village in 1993 and that the origins of the massacre that took place in 2019 extend back to those days.

Ahmet Ferhat Özen, the then-Deputy Governor of Mardin, stated regarding the massacre, "They call it rent, they call it hostility, they call it grudge; the atrocity cannot be defined by these. I do not understand the logic of killing women and children." When asked, "How do you respond to the fact that the police station intervened two hours later, even though it is possible for a vehicle traveling at 90 km/h to reach the village in 5-6 minutes?" he replied, "The road is stabilized, it may have been mined, and they may have defined the intervention late due to the situation the individuals were experiencing at the moment of the incident. There is no negligence. There are 11 detainees."

Mehmet Kızılkaya, the then-Mufti of Mardin, stated that the atrocity was not the first, that a similar atrocity occurred in 1996, and that the incident had no connection to the PKK. The words Kızılkaya used in a religious context while describing the atrocity are quite thought-provoking. For Kızılkaya says: "In this incident, both sides are believers, but those killed are also Muslims; however, they are those who pray less. The others are also Muslims and believers, and people who pray more." The Mufti sees the solution in religious education: "It is necessary to focus on religious education." Representatives of KESK, İHD, and the Mardin Medical Chamber say, "The truths behind the atrocity can only be uncovered by revealing the village guard system."

Let's come to our interview.

Lawyer Erdal Kuzu, the then-Mardin Branch President of the İHD, describes the massacre as a "rent struggle brought about by the system." So, I say, "honor killing." Kuzu says, "Yes, there may be an aspect of the matter related to honor killing, but the whole event is not limited to this; it was only portrayed that way."

When I asked Kuzu, "You went to the region, you talked to the eyewitnesses of the event, what were your observations?" he gave me a very striking answer. Lawyer Kuzu said, "Neither side requested legal assistance from the Human Rights Association." When I asked for the reason, he replied, "There may be a concern that the truths underlying the events would not be revealed."

"The only issue was not the attitude of the parties," Kuzu continued. Public forces had also not shown enough effort to clarify the events. According to Kuzu, the investigation conducted into the massacre had also limited the matter only to honor killing.

To my question, "So, what would have happened if the investigation had been conducted in a more general framework, which events would have been clarified?" Kuzu answered with dark events such as unsolved murders, extrajudicial executions, etc.

What he said in the next sentence was even more striking. Because some of the suspects, some time after their arrest, sent letters to the prosecutors and confessed to the crimes they had committed in the past. To my question, "Why did they do such a thing?" he replied, "Both sides are already relatives, they know the crimes they committed in the past mutually. They wanted not only themselves but also the other side to be tried."

"However," said Lawyer Erdal Kuzu, "the event was not clarified in any way, the investigation was not expanded, the matter was limited only to the dimension of honor killing. Subsequently, no progress could be made because of the statute of limitations. We encountered the same situation at the ECHR as well."

Finally, he concluded his words as follows: Behind this massacre lies a rent struggle involving different powers, the village guard order, and similar dirty relationships. As long as these relationships are not revealed, the Bilge Village Massacre cannot be clarified.

On the evening of May 4 in Bilge Village, not only the weather but also people's lives were darkened, and a massacre that would go down in history with shame was carried out in minutes.

Those holding the barrels were familiar; they were people living in the same village and even relatives. At the end of the atrocity, there were also those left behind.

67 orphaned and fatherless children were left behind.

According to democratic mass organizations, the truth was drowned in darkness.

By calling it a statute of limitations, the truths were covered up in a way that they would not be uncovered.

And not only people were buried in the ground, but justice was also killed there.