A Kurdish massacre finds no justice in Turkey
December 28 2011 near the village of Roboski, in the Uludere district of Sırnak province at around 9.20pm four Turkish F-16 fighter jets bombed a group of Kurdish young villagers transporting cheap fuel into Turkey from Iraq, 34 members of the group including 17 children were killed.
On April 12, “Residents of Roboski village in eastern Turkey are still waiting for the government to name and try those in the army responsible for an air strike that killed 34 Kurdish villagers on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan last December.”
The Turkish army initially said the raid was a success and claimed that they had killed fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) – a group that has waged an armed rebellion against the state since 1984.
Aslan Encu, who was killed in the massacre, was smuggling to support his brother who had previously lost his leg in a minefield and was in need of prosthetic limb. Aslan was also a student trying to pay for his education from income made by smuggling. They all needed money to live.
Unfortunately in Turkey being born in the Kurdish area means being seen as a potential terrorist and this is the reason why most people would not question why these youngsters were smugglers. Smuggling was never going to make them rich as they were only earning 30 Turkish Lira`s a day, that is £13!
The Turkish media kept the massacre secret from public for 24 hours! The ambulances heading towards Uludere were stopped by soldiers in Sirnak and they did give permission to travel until later and they reached the people at 8am. The villagers are asking, ‘who authorised stopping the ambulances?’ They want answers! But the authorities do not answer!
A ruling party spokesman Huseyin Celik was the first government body to speak on television, he said that the people killed were not terrorists, they were smugglers. Furthermore, some of the dead were children of village guards and Veterans. Celik continued it was ‘an error, defect or deficient and any wrong should not be covered over.’ But he also said that those who describe the incident as a massacre did not have good intentions!
Some people from the neighbouring villages said that the villagers were blocked by soldiers while trying to cross the border from northern Iraq and were bombed later. The mass media and main television bodies tried to show the massacre as an incident which occurred due to the PKK.
The Uludere mayor said, `The state knew that these people were smuggling in the area. This is unacceptable. They were hit from the air.’ Another Kurdish MP Demirtas said `Today, Turkey has been divided’. The Prime Minister who is from the Islamist party AKP created a lot of problems in the last few years for the Kurdish People. The Kurdish MP`s said that the AKP`s solutions, bombings and oppression will not be tolerated any longer and a democratic response will be given. This massacre will not be forgotten!
The BDP (Peace, Democrat Party, known to support Kurdish people’s rights) have organised and demonstrated against the massacre in many parts of Turkey. The government will not be able to cover up the massacre this time. The PKK leader and member Dr. Bahoz Erdal released a statement confirming that the region of Uludere is not used by the guerrillas as it is an area where hundreds of people travel through with their mules and they will not build camps in such busy districts.
The US Ambassador in Ankara Francis Ricciardone said that 34 civilians killed in Roboski were not chosen as a target and continued, “The United States is not involved in target selection. We did not do anything in choosing Roboski as a target selection. We provide intelligence support against the PKK. But target setting is an issue related to Turkey completely.” They just supply information, war planes and flightless drones!
BDP announced three days of mourning in the area and many nearby areas and provinces protested against the massacre. The government made no attempt to visit the area or attend the funeral. Although independent newspapers wrote articles in support of the Uludere villagers that were killed, the main media chose to listen to the government and concealed the incident.
RED demands include the release of the recordings of all the conversations that took place on the day of the massacre between 18:30 – 21:30 with the village because the villagers told them ‘We called the district governor and the commander. We said that these are our children, don’t bomb them!’
The government and mass media clearly wanted to hide the governments’ massacre of the Kurdish people. In fact, the poor in this country are always seen as guilty. If the dead are poor they must be guilty!
