Mehmet Emin Özalp
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Merchant
- Event description
Per plaintiff testimony given for the investigation launched by the İdil Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Özalp family had moved from their home in Cizre to Xendek (Hendek) village due to pressure from authorities to become village guards. Mehmet Emin Özalp’s friend Nurettin Erşek was a somewhat well-to do shepherd in the same village. Both men moved to İdil when the Xendek village was burnt down completely. They were engaged in buying and selling domestic animals.
24th September 1994 when Nurettin Erşek said that some of his sheep had disappeared, both men, together with other friends went to look for the sheep. First, they went to the Hespist (Yarbaşı) village. On the way, they were told the sheep were not there, their friends returned home while Mehmet Emin Özalp and Nurettin Erşek continued to look for the sheep. They were not heard from after this moment. Later, as their families searched for them, witnesses told them that two men were seen being forced into the File (Bereketli) village by armed men. Previously, Mehmet Emin Özalp and Nurettin Erşek had been told that File village was a Hizbullah-affiliated village and going there as strangers would not be welcome.
After they were forced to go the village by armed men, the two men have not been found, nor have their bodily remains been located.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.3402
Longitude: 41.8934
- Geolocation
- City
- Şırnak
- District
- İdil
- Date of disappearance
- Sep 25, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:33
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- Interview with family member (audio and video records)
- Victim statement to prosecutor
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Unknown
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per plaintiff testimony, the family members of Mehmet Emin Özalp applied to the Cizre Public Prosecutor in 2009 when they heard that some new investigation files were being opened regarding enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the region and requested that the perpetrators be identified and DNA testsrun if any exhumations are to be done in the region. In 2012, the Cizre Public Prosecutor Office prepared a summary of proceedings for 20 people who were allegedly killed or victims of enforced disappearance between 1993 and 1998 in Güçlükonak province of Şırnak and sent it to the Diyarbakır Public Procutor Office for further investigation. The current situation of the investigation, which also includes Mehmet Emin Özalp, after that is unknown.