Tahir Koçu
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Date body found
- Feb 1, 1993
- Occupation
- Shepherd
- Dependants
- 8
- Event description
Per Yakay-Der records and news article published by the Özgür Gündem newspaper on 14th January 1994; Emin Savgat, a primary school graduate and father of five children, was a farmer. He lived in the Baqirtalê village of Cizre. Tahir Koçu, who was living in the same village, was a shepherd. He was married and had seven children.
One evening in February 1993, the two men were taken away by a group of men in military uniforms. Three days later, their dead bodies were found near the Radar military station and buried by their families.
Even though some villagers had witnessed the two men being taken to the nearby police station, the police denied taking the two men into custody. Fearing repercussions, the family refrained from taking any further action until 2009, when the families applied to the Cizre Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, successfully initiating an investigation.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.33234600000001
Longitude: 42.185474000000006
- Geolocation
- City
- Şırnak
- District
- Cizre
- Date of disappearance
- Feb 1, 1993
- Year of disappearance
- 1993
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:36
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead and returned to the family
- Type of source material
- Interview with family member (audio and video records)
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Investigation continues
- Summary of the legal proceedings
In 2009, investigations into several cases of enforced disappearance and extra juridical killings that had happened in 1990s in and around Şırnak were reopened. On 26th January 2009 the families of Tahir Koçu and Emin Savgat, who had been discovered dead in 1993 after being abducted by armed men in military uniforms, submitted a petition to the Office of Cizre Public Prosecutor to request the perpetrators to be identified.
On 10th February 2012, the Office of Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor requested the Office of Cizre Public Prosecutor to notify the results of its investigation. On 4th June 2015, Cizre Police Department stated that the identities of perpetrators had not been determined but the investigation was going on. Hafıza Merkezi does not hold further information regarding the progress of the judicial process.