TURKEY: Chaldean Priest Ramzi Diril pledges to bring back his kidnapped elderly parents

Mahre village, Şirnak – The parents of Chaldean priest Ramzi Diril, retired couple Hirmiz and Smuni Diril, have not been heard of since their disappearance on 11 January of this year. So far no specific information has been reported about them or their possible whereabouts.

The couple lives in the mountainous Hakkari region of southeast Turkey in the village of Mahre, Baytu Şabab district, Şirnak province.

Sabro magazine, a Syriac magazine published in Turkey in both Syriac and Turkish, in its latest issue tried to shed more light on the issue of the priests’ parents questioning their controversial disappearance and their fate.

Priest Ramzi Diril made a call in Sabro magazine upon the people of the region to help find his disappeared parents. Sabro magazine talked to the couple’s son Ramzi Diril who serves the Chaldean parish in Istanbul: “So far, I have not had any information whether they are alive or not. We continue to appeal to the public, to all who have something to do with the case and even to the party that kidnapped them, to return these two elderly people to their village.”

Sabro magazine also invited its readers to send it any information or news that can shed light on the couples whereabouts. At the end of the report, Sabro magazine commented: What is the purpose of their kidnapping? And why have the Turkish authorities put a kind of secrecy around this dossier?

Human rights organization have also helped on the issue and demanded  Turkish officials to investigate the mystery of their disappearance or possible kidnapping in the village of Mahre.