On October 3, 1993, the house Öğüt family lived in the Vartinis district of Muş was set on fire. Father Nasır Öğüt, mother Eşref Öğüt, children Sevda, Sevim, Mehmet Şakir, Mehmet Şirin, Aycan, Cihan and Cinal were burned to death in the tragedy which went down in history as the Vartinis Massacre. The youngest of the children killed was 2 years old, and the oldest was 14. Aysel Öğüt was the only survivor in the incident in which 7 children and a pregnant woman were murdered.

 

ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE

 

45-year-old Ayşe Öğüt was 17 when she lost her family. Her father was a farmer and a carpenter. Nasır Öğüt had eight children from his first marriage. At the time of the massacre, Aysel Öğüt, who had a 1-year-old baby, came to her family's house from the neighboring village. Aysel Öğüt, who stayed in her uncle's house with her baby because her father's house was too small and crowded, survived the massacre that night by chance.

 

THE MORNING OF THE MASSACRE

 

Explaining that on the morning of October 2, 1993, the military units came to Vartinis and blazed away at the shops in the village, Aysel Öğüt told that her father came back home in a hurry and told that he heard Gendarmerie Captain Bülent Karaoğlu, who served as the Hasköy District Gendarmerie Commander at the time, said they were going to burn down the village that night. Öğüt said she was concerned and agitated to hear this but her father said, "I have not harmed the state, why would they harm me". Öğüt continued, "Then my uncles wife came to our door and said I could come over to their place because our house was too small and crowded. I took my baby and went over there. The two houses were close to each other. We woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of gun fire. We saw that soldiers were everywhere."

 

'NASIR AND THE CHILDREN TURNED INTO ASHES'

 

Öğüt whose whole famile was slaughtered, said: "We were hearing the sounds of the gun fire. We got scared. We hid in the room. We were hearing screams coming from outside. We opened the door but there were soldiers pointing their gun at us. They told us to go back in. Ten minutes later, fires began to rise from my father's house. I tried to go out and help them but they swore at us and pushed us back into the house. They waited right outside my father's house and didn't let anyone out. I thought there was no one in the house. I thought they'd left. I thought the soldiers threw them out before burning the house down. A woman came to my uncle's house in the morning. She said, "Nasır and the children turned into ash." That's how I understood that my family was murdered. I was going to die there too if there was space for me and baby in the house."

 

'I WILL GET THEM TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE'

 

Stating that she received treatment for years after her family was murdered, Öğüt said, “My whole family was burned to death that morning. I had nothing to hold on to. I locked myself in a room for months and never spoke to anyone. I was on anti-depressants for 5 years. I was in and out of hospital for 15 years.  I was mentally, psychologically and physically broken. They were my soul, they were my soul. I was their eldest sister. We loved each other very much. My father was a very good person. He loved his children very much and always stood behind us. They left me. May Allah not accept this cruelty. I will get them to be held accountable even if I die persuing this."

 

THE WHOLE VILLAGE WITNESSED THE MASSACRE

 

Öğüt said that she could not get back in the house where her whole family was burned to death which was later turned into a museum by the Nusaybin Municipality in 2016, and continued, “People ask me; “How did you live with so much pain?” I lived to defend their rights. My only concern right now is that the criminals, the perpetrators of this massacre, are punished. All the people here witnessed that, that massacre was carried out by the soldiers. They want the court to prolong the statute of limitations. We only expect justice. I'm calling for everyone's help to find justice. I don't want to cry in the courtrooms again."

 

 

MA / Dindar Karataş