Event overview
Join us for a screening of Dargeçit, a documentary on enforced disappearances in Turkey and the families fight for truth and justice.
The documentary, co-produced by Hafıza Merkezi (Truth, Justice, Memory Center), highlights the case of seven Kurdish villagers, including three children, who were forcibly disappeared in 1995, and the relentless legal battle by their families and lawyer Erdal Kuzu seeking justice and accountability in an environment marked by systemic state violence and impunity.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director Berke Baş, and Dr Noémi Lévy-Aksu, Programme Director of Memory and Peace Studies at Hafıza Merkezi.
Background
Between October 29th and November 2nd, 1995, the Turkish gendarmerie detained around fifty people in Dargeçit district of Mardin, in Turkey’s Kurdish region. The detentions came after the killing of two teachers and a building contractor by PKK guerillas amidst the most violent phase of the armed conflict between the Turkish security forces and the PKK, Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Seven of the detained, among them three children, were never seen again. A sergeant who was said to inform the townspeople about the killings in custody went missing himself.
In 2014, the remains of five of the disappeared were discovered and identified. As a result of this discovery, a court case could be started against 5 military personnel, including gendarmerie commanders, and 13 village guards, with charges of premeditated murder. The documentary Hold Still takes us from the 10th hearing of this court case to its conclusion with the 27th hearing in July 2022. The film focuses on the legal struggle led by the families of seven people forcibly disappeared and their lawyer, Erdal Kuzu.
Berke Baş has been directing and producing independent documentaries on social and political issues in Turkey since 2001. In 1998, she founded inHouse Projects with Melis Birder. studied political sciences at Bogaziçi University, Istanbul and received her masters degree in media studies at New School for Social Research, New York. Between 2002-2017, she lectured at Istanbul Bilgi University Cinema, TV and Cultural Studies graduate programs.
Noémi Lévy-Aksu is the Program Director of Memory and Peace Studies at Hafıza Merkezi. She received her Ph.D in History from EHESS in 2010. From 2010 to 2017, she was an assistant professor at Boğaziçi University, Department of History and authored a number of academic publications. Before joining Hafıza Merkezi, she held a British Academy fellowship researching regimes of exception in Turkey at Birkbeck College, School of Law, completed a Graduate Diploma in Law in London (2018), contributed to legal work at the Democratic Progress Institute and Redress Trust (2018-2019), and coordinated a capacity-building program for Solidarity Academies in Turkey through the Centre for Democracy and Peace Research (CDPR).
This event is co-organised by Unit for Global Justice, Centre for Research Architecture and Forensic Architecture.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Jun 2025 | 5:30pm - 8:00pm |
Accessibility
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