Mustafa Araz, from the Kağızman district of Kars (Qers), was a Kurdish soldier doing his conscription in the Turkish army at the Air Defense Missile Command of the 1st Armored Brigade Command.
He died suspiciously on 12 May 2020 while he was serving in the Babaeski district of Kırklareli.
In the statement made by Turkish military officials, it was written that Araz had committed suicide by jumping from a building.
However, Araz’s family noticed that there were marks that showed that Araz was tied up by his arms. There were also scars of beatings on different parts of his body. The family filed a complaint to the Babaeski Public Prosecutor’s Office. Meanwhile, a suicide note that was allegedly written by Araz was added to the file of the dead soldier as reported by Mesopotamia News Agency.
While there has been no progress in the investigation of the case, in the autopsy report of the death of Araz, it was noted that there were “superficial skin cuts on both wrists parallel to each other”. Whereas the reason for the skin cuts is not explained in the report.
This increased the Araz family’s suspicions that their son had been killed and that the murder was trying being covered up. The family’s lawyer Cesim Parlak made immediate legal objections to the report.
Parlak stated that the normal reasons for an autopsy to be undertaken would be to find out why and how a person died.
“None of this has been done in this autopsy report,” said the lawyer Parlak. “This report is limited only to the descriptions of injuries and damage on the body.” he added.
The Father of the soldier, Hasan Araz thinks the perpetrators are being protected, “The report shows it clearly. This is the proof that my son was tortured to death, we demand those who are responsible to be put on trial,” he said.
