One of the symbolic figures of the systematic attacks carried out by the Turkish state against Free Press workers in the 1990s, Özgür Gündem distributor Orhan Karaağar was killed after being taken into custody on 19 January 1993. None of the investigations conducted into his death were ever concluded, and over the years the case became part of a broader policy of impunity. 

 

During the years when the state’s dark face was directed at Kurdish press workers amid the conflict, Karaağar was not only a distributor, but a bearer of a truth that was meant to be silenced. Despite the passage of 33 years, the unresolved case ended in “impunity,” like dozens of journalist murders committed in the 1990s.

 

On the 33rd anniversary of his killing, Orhan Karaağar was remembered by his sister, Şengül Karaağar. Stating that Orhan possessed a great determination to struggle, Şengül Karaağar said: “He was a comrade, a brother. His attitude toward the family and his sensitivity to those around him were different. I don’t know how to put it into words. Whenever we had a problem or difficulty, we would go to him first. He became a child with children, and an elder with elders. His friendship, brotherhood, and comradeship were unique.”

 

She noted that Orhan was first involved with the Human Rights Association (İHD) and later began working with Özgür Gündem, during which time he was frequently detained. She added that he was arrested during the 12 September coup and held in Amed (Diyarbakır) Prison, and that the family only learned months later that he was being imprisoned.

 

Emphasizing that Orhan’s stance and struggle left a deep impact on the family, Şengül Karaağar said that after his martyrdom, all family members began working within the Kurdish freedom movement. She recalled that on the day he was killed, a police vehicle came to their neighbourhood and detained her another sibling, and that they later went to the hospital after receiving news that Orhan had been shot, where they saw his body. 

 

She said: “They told us, ‘Take the body tonight and bury it,’ but we refused and said we would hold a funeral the next day. The following day, thousands of people poured into the cemetery. I grabbed a police officer by the collar and said, ‘You killed him, what more do you want?’ He immediately reached for the gun on his waist. After all this, we embraced the struggle that he left us as a legacy.”

 

‘THE FREE PRESS IS THE LIGHT OF THE STRUGGLE’

 

Drawing attention to ongoing attacks against the Free Press, Şengül Karaağar said that the Free Press has never taken a step back. Emphasizing that they have expanded the legacy left by people like Orhan, she said: “Since Orhan’s time, pressure on the Free Press has never diminished. But this pressure has never forced it to retreat. Others came in place of those who were martyred. People were lost, but others always stepped forward. The Free Press is the light and the truth of this struggle. These journalists are targeted because they write the truth and deliver it to the people. Whenever a journalist is martyred, someone else picks up their camera from the ground. Because what they write is the truth, and this truth will always be written.”

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut