Background
Rıdvan Karakoç is one of the people who disappeared after being detained in Istanbul in early 1995. His file is often mentioned alongside that of Hasan Ocak from the same year, because the two families came across each other's case files while looking for their relatives.
Karakoç's family began the search at official institutions in Istanbul and for a long time received no answer.
What happened
Rıdvan Karakoç was detained on 15 February 1995 and then disappeared. On 2 March 1995 villagers found his body under a tree on the Mahmut Şevket Paşa road in Bozhane village, Beykoz. It was sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute and, as no identification was made, buried in the Altınşehir cemetery for unidentified people.
His brother Mehmet Karakoç identified the body on 30 May 1995, and it was moved and reburied in the family plot in Gaziosmanpaşa. During this period the Ocak family, searching for their son, had come across the Karakoç file at the Beykoz prosecutor's office.
Investigation and legal process
According to the family and the Human Rights Association, prosecutors for years effectively limited themselves to issuing 'permanent search' orders, and evidence the family submitted was not assessed. By his brother Hasan Karakoç's account, the file sat on the shelves of Beykoz Courthouse for thirty-one years.
In September 2026 the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a decision not to prosecute, citing the expiry of the statute of limitations. The Saturday Mothers and the Istanbul commission on disappearances in custody of the Human Rights Association appealed. Their argument rests on the UN convention under which the limitation period in enforced disappearances begins only when the person's fate is fully clarified; Turkey is not a party to it.
Where it stands today
Karakoç's file has become a symbolic example of statutes of limitation applied to people who disappeared in custody in the 1990s. The Saturday Mothers have asked for justice for him many times, including at their 516th week. The outcome of the appeal is watched as a precedent that could affect similar files.