Notorious JİTEM member’s poster put up for sale as ‘souvenir’ on online shopping giant

A poster embodying the sketch of former JİTEM member Mahmut Yıldırım and “white Toros” has been up for sale on the e-commerce platform Çiçeksepeti. Hundreds of Kurdish people became victims of enforced disappearances in Turkey during the 1990s, abducted by the now-defunct JİTEM with Toros car brand. Following an outcry on social media, Çiçesepeti removed the poster from the online platform.

Monday March 06 2023 07:10 pm

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Turkey’s online shopping giant Çiçeksepeti has put up for sale posters with the sketch of a former member of JİTEM, a clandestine state security unit responsible for dozens of unsolved murders and disappearances in the 1990s.

The poster was sold with the name of “Mahmut Yıldırım Yeşil The Yeşil Ahşap Tablo” (Mahmut Yıldırım Green The Green Wooden Painting in English) as a “souvenir,” according to reporting by online news portal Diken.

Several social media users protested the e-commerce platform with the hashtag of ÇiçekSepetiBoykot (Boycott Çiçek Sepeti), demanding that the poster be removed from the website. Afterwards, the company took off the “souvenir” from the sale.

On March 5, footballers of Amedspor, the team of the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakır, were subjected to a racist attack during a league match against Bursaspor. Some people in the tribunes unfurled posters of “White Toros” and Mahmut Yıldrım during the match.

“White Toros” – an old vehicle specially designed for Turkish drivers by French Renault’s local representative – symbolized the embodiment of state fear in the 1990s in Turkey's southeast.

Hundreds of Kurdish people became victims of enforced disappearances in Turkey during this period, abducted by JİTEM with Toros brand. Mahmut Yıldırım, known by the code name “Green,” also played a role in these notorious murders.