What if the judgement is known before the justice-making?
The procedure is an indispensable part of the administration of justice. Procedural justice is essential for generating public consent through the complex application of simple principles, such as transparency, accountability, the rule of law and equality of arms. Courtroom dramas, performances and architecture, as well as rituals, are all part of this.
Dargeçit is a documentary about a lengthy judicial process with a twist: everyone knows the outcome of the case. The film focuses on the enforced disappearance of eight people, including a specialist sergeant and three children, in the Dargeçit district of Mardin province between 29 October 1995 and 8 March 1996. You can find details of the case in the failibelli.com digital archive. The film focuses primarily on the children, their families, and Turkey's justice system. On the one hand, it demonstrates hollow justice — justice that is merely skin-deep, with no substance. But it also shows the other aspects of a court case: a political act of visibility; a means of remembering and archiving; a way of forming community and solidarity; and a duty to victims. The court plays a testimonial role. The victims' families speak not to persuade the court, but to ensure that their story is entered into the collective memory. Consequently both the movie and the case is about memory; the film carries these children's stories to a wider audience, and the case itself contributes to our collective memory of state violence and the endemic impunity for state-sponsored murderers in Turkey. In the movie there is a scene where Abdulaziz Altinkaynak looks at he only photo of his tortured and murdered son, and says "this is a proof that he once existed". The court case, the documentary, son's photo... They are traces of the truth.
The justice we see on the screen is hollow. It is hollow in the sense that it has no life, only procedure: timetables, doors, rules, letters, applications, the collection of evidence, witnesses and waiting. Very long waiting. Waiting for injustice. If the verdict has already been delivered before the case has begun, the courtroom becomes a mere shell of procedure. In Dargeçit, mimetic devices multiply: court doors are shut, papers pass hands, timetables are read out like incantations. These are not mere documentary details, but theatrical reproductions of a justice system simulating its own vitality. The procedure mimics justice—invoking its language, its posture—but without life or consequence. From the gaps of the justice procedure, lost bodies, photos, memories of the murdered fall onto the courtroom.
The documentary is one of the projects supported by the excellent Hafiza Merkezi. Their work on restorative justice in Turkey is worthy of a separate entry, which we will explore in the future. For now please see: https://hakikatadalethafiza.org/en
27 years and counting... Families whose sons and brothers disappeared at the hands of state forces in the Dargeçit district of Mardin in 1995 are fighting for truth and justice within the Turkish judicial system with the help of their lawyer Erdal Kuzu and the Human Rights Association. They travel for hours to each hearing of the trial, which finally began in 2015. While breaking the state’s wall of impunity may seem impossible, “the truth is out there for those who want to see it.”