Who: Ferhat Tepe
When: 04.08.1994
Where: Xarpet, Northern Kurdistan
What?
Journalist Ferhat Tepe was a Bitlis reporter for Özgür Gündem Newspaper. While leaving his house in the city center of Bitlis on July 28, 1993, he was kidnapped by people dressed in plain clothes carrying two-way radios.
A person who telephoned Tepe’s father’s house shortly after his abduction stated that Ferhat Tepe was abducted by the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT) and conditioned that he would only be released if Ferhat’s father İshak Tepe resigned from his position at DEP Bitlis Province. The abductors stated: “The organization is killing the children of the Turks, and we will kill your children.”
The abductors further demanded that 1 billion pounds of ransom money and that four French tourists who were supposedly kidnapped by the organization be released.
İshak Tepe emphasized that the voice of the person who called him was almost identical to the voice of Tatvan Brigade Commander Korkmaz Tağma.
İshak Tepe’s claim that the voice on the phone was similar to the voice of Korkmaz Tağma was not in vain. For some time before this incident, İshak Tepe had quarreled with Korkmaz Tağma and was threatened in a meeting where politicians and the city’s notables were present.
İshak Tepe, who presented these and similar clues to the relevant units of the state together with the lawyers of Özgür Gündem Newspaper, did not get any results despite all his efforts and Ferhat Tepe could not be found.
Indeed, 18-year-old young reporter Ferhat Tepe was found dead by a fisherman on August 8, 1993 in Elazig, on the Sivrice shore of the Caspian Lake.
Torture
After an autopsy was performed on Ferhat Tepe’s corpse, it was understood that he was tortured intensely, cigarettes had been extinguished on his body, and his throat was strangled by a wire.
The way that journalist Ferhat Tepe was killed was the same style used by contra-guerrillas who had killed thousands of civilians over that period.
No arrests were made despite ongoing complaints.
