Emine Rezzan Karaman

The Fellowship enables the publication of four articles examining the struggle waged by the relatives of forcibly disappeared in Turkey through practices I conceptualize as judicio-politics. The articles focus on critical moments in which families expose multiple forms of violence: physical violence inflicted on the disappeared; epistemological violence produced through denial and silence; moral violence that implies the guilt of the disappeared; affective and legal violence imposed on families; and fear-based mechanisms of intimidation across society. Drawing on interviews, court records, and accessible archives, the articles conceptualize judicio-politics as a regime of political, legal, epistemic and symbolic actions. This regime operates through the entanglement of legal instruments with demonstrations, graves, and affective testimonies. Thus, the articles offer a novel analytical lens to academic debates that largely framed families’ struggles solely as political protest. Rather than appearing merely as protesters, families emerge in these articles as judicio-political actors. Faced with a non-functioning system, they petition legislative, executive, and judicial authorities; conduct investigations; collect evidence; trace bones; attend hearings held in distant cities for “security” purposes; and sustain public testimony. This multi-layered perspective enables a comprehensive analysis of how families pursue truth and justice while remaining within-yet challenging- the judicial sphere’s limits.