Remziye Bayram is looking for his son who had been gone missing in custody for 23 years. Now he’s in action for his grandson on hunger strike. The story of a Kurdish woman who has not changed since the 90s’.
BOLD / AGENDA – Remziye Şirin Bayram, mother of Mehmet Şirin Bayram, who had been gone missing after his detention in Demirli (Temiran) village of Diyarbakır Province on 1 November 1996, is looking for her son for 23 years. Remziye Bayram, one of the Saturday Mothers[1], takes the road of Diyarbakır Branch of Human Rights Association (İHD) with her son’s photo framed every Saturday. After chatting with other mothers before the action, she moves into the action room. Since the closure of Kosuyolu Park to the Saturday mothers, Remziye Bayram shows up to the world that she hasn’t forgotten about her son, and is looking for her to her last breath.
Remziye Bayram described herself as “I am mother if Sirin”, and told the Mesopotamian Agency about the pressures in many Kurdish villages in the 1990s: “We were leaving in the hamlet of the Demirli village (Temira). In 1994, we had to leave our village due to the imposition of working as a village guard. Normally we left the village as a whole family, but his uncle returned to the village in 1996. Sirin went to the village to see his uncle. He was 18 at the time. After 3 days at his uncle’s house, he went to the house of an acquaintance. According to their narration, he says; “I am expecting some guests before we go to sleep at night between 23.00 – 24.00. Please, do not be afraid If the door is knocked.” He said that at the time the door was knocked, but the arriving soldiers, special forces and village guards. The door was knocked at the mentioned time however the people who came were not guests but, soldiers, special forces and village guards. They detain Sirin and 65 years old host, Ramazan Tekin. In the morning, family members tell the situation to their uncle. His uncle also visits the headquarters of the police station in the center Kulp, but he was given this answer; “He is not here.” Following, the other villagers went to the police station asking for the situation but we did not get a response.
23 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS INVESTIGATION and WITNESSES WHO CHANGE THEIR STATEMENTS
The family asked the fate of Sirin to one village guard who they knew personally, said “I saw Şirin, he was in custody, his eyes were closed. I approached him and called his name, he recognized me and asked me what I was doing here. In return, I replied, this is my place. What are you doing here? However, after a short time, the village guard withdraw his statement after receiving several life threats and stated that it was not Sirin I saw in the custody that night, it was someone else. Mother Remziye said that they had asked all the authorities for years as a family and they were always told that the case was under investigation and that they renewed their complaints every year.
“I WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT TELLS ME WHAT THEY DID TO MY SON”
Since her son’s disappearance, mother Remziye, with her white shawl, never stopped asking her son’s fate. “I’m still struggling since then. Either that government will explain to us how they killed our child and give me his bones, or I’ll knock on their doors every day. So, the government is in great delusion if they think we are going to give up looking for my son every day.
FIRST LOOKED FOR HIS SON, NOW IN PROTEST FOR HIS GRANDSON
Remziye Bayram now goes out on the street for her son as well as her grandson on hunger strike. His grandson Azad Bayram, who was detained in Batman 8 months ago, was arrested by the court. Bayram was stayed in Batman prison for 3 months and, now is in Van T type prison for 5 months. Mother Remziye, with her daughter, is now visiting Kosuyolu park everyday to withdraw the segregation on her grandson who is under hunger strike.
Mother Remziye describes the 23 years of her 62 years with saying; “We have nothing to fear anymore. Our children are gone, our grandchildren are gone… There is nothing but struggle in our lives. Azad is in hunger strike in prison. His mother and I work outside. So, we do not have any other struggle and worry but this.
[1] The Saturday Mothers (Cumartesi Anneleri) is a group who gathers 12pm every Saturday for half an hour at Galatasaray (district), Istanbul (Turkey), holding photographs of their “lost” loved ones. Mainly composed of mothers of victims, and renowned as a model of civil disobedience, they combine silent sit-in with communal vigil as their method of protest against the forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey during the military coup-era of 1980s and the OHAL-era of 1990s. On October 25, 2014, they held their 500th sit-in protest. (Wikipedia, 2019)
