Ayşenur Şimşek
person- Image
- Sex
- Female
- Civil status
- Single
- Date body found
- Apr 12, 1995
- Occupation
- Trade unionist
- Event description
Per Yakay-der records and witness deposition given by her sister to HADEP (People’s Democracy Party), 27-year-old Ayşenur Şimşek was a pharmacist and the founding director of the health labor union, Sağlık-Sen, in Ankara. She had been receiving threats because of her union activities and had been detained and tortured in 1991 and again in 1993. In October 1993, the police issued a search warrant for her. She did not present herself to the police and became a fugitive. She could communicate with her family only via an intermediary. After 24th January 1995, her family heard nothing from her.
Ayşenur’s family went to police stations, the public prosecutor’s office and also the Ministry of Interior but could not get any information about their daughter. On 11th April 1995, they read an article on an unidentified body being buried in a pauper’s grave in Kırıkkale. The Şimşek family applied to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor and identified the body as Ayşenur. According to the autopsy report, she was killed on 28th January 1995. She had been severely tortured and there were two bullets in her body.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 39.93336349999999
Longitude: 32.8597419
- Geolocation
- City
- Ankara
- Date of disappearance
- Jan 24, 1995
- Year of disappearance
- 1995
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:27
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead and returned to the family
- Type of source material
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Printed or online news
- Statement by victim/complainant
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Unknown
- Summary of the legal proceedings
In 2009, the Human Rights Association applied to the Office of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor regarding ten disappearance cases, including Ayşenur Şimşek’s disappearance and murder. The Human Rights Association requested these cases to be included in the Ergenekon trial where a number of high-profile figures allegedly involved in a coup plot were trialed. Their request was not accepted but a novel investigation into these cases was opened. Each file was transferred to the chief public prosecutor’s offices with adequate jurisdiction. Investigation into Ayşenur Şimşek’s disappearance was transferred to the Office of the Ankara Public Prosecutor. Hafıza Merkezi does not have further information regarding the progress of the case.