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Turkey's Roboski Kurdish massacre: Who
gave the order to fire?
4.2.2012
By ekurd.net staff writers |
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Locals gather in front of the bodies of people who
were killed in a Turkish warplane attack in the Ortasu
village of Uludere, in the Sirnak province [Turkey
Kurdistan], on December 29, 2011. Turkish warplanes
killed 34 Kurdish villagers in an air strike near
the Iraqi Kurdistan border, Photo: EPA.
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The order to fire was allegedly given by Ankara
February 4, 2012
ANKARA, — Report by Milliyet Daily claimed
that the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV-Heron) footages
had been watched "minute by minute" by six bases
before the bombardment in the village of Roboski
near the Iraqi Kurdistan border where 34 Kurdish
civilians were
killed on 28
December 2011. The report with the title
"Intelligence came from UAV, the fire order from
Ankara” said that the order to open fire on
villagers had been given by the government in
Ankara, ANF news agency reported.
The report quoted an official in Şırnak as follows;
"The UAV footages were being watched in Ankara,
Malatya, Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Van and Şenoba Brigade
Commanderships in Uludere second by second. The air
bombardment started following the order given from
Ankara. The artillery shooting was stopped and
warplanes took off from Şenoba Brigade Commandership
by the instruction of Ankara government. The
smugglers were bombarded around 19.30-20.00 o’clock.
While the herons continued to fly over the area
after the bombardment as well, a second bombardment
was made in the area 45 minutes later.”
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Chair Selahattin
Demirtaş last week asked the Prime Minister whether
the order to fire had been given by him or not.
During the AKP Group Meeting on 31 January,www.ekurd.net
PM Erdoğan responded to Demirtaş’s question with
insults and also said that; "We authorize security
forces in a general framework and they take the
necessary actions as well as consulting us on
certain subjects if necessary."
Survivors and witnesses of a Turkish air strike that
killed 35 Kurdish villagers as they smuggled goods
questioned the
army's account that they had mistaken them for
Kurdish rebels.
Amnesty International last January
calls on the Turkish
authorities to investigate immediately the death of
at least 35 Kurdish civilians in the military airstrike.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc
said
on January 3, 2012 Turkey will pay reparations to
the families of Kurdish villagers killed in air
strikes near the Iraqi Kurdistan border, but will
not officially apologise. Hasip Kaplan, BDP parliamentary
group president and deputy for Şırnak has
said that
Ankara is behind the massacre in the Kurdish village
of Roboski.
A US Predator drone mistakenly targeted the Kurdish
civilians, a
report said
last January.
The drone, was one of four based at Incirlik Airbase
in southern Turkey, launched the airstrike in
December on the village of Ortasu, sources told
Turkey's Aydinlik.
In its main headline on Sunday, Turkish Aydinlik
newspaper quoted "credible sources" as saying that
the US drone had launched the airstrike by targeting
the victims. Iran's Press TV reported.
Turkish air force F-16 fighter jets arrived on scene
about 16 to 18 minutes later and continued the
attack on what the military thought were members of
the of Kurdistan Workers' Party rebel group, Iran's Press TV said.
Turkey’s Consul-General in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan
region, Aydin Selcen,
confirmed reports that the
US deployed drones to Turkey’s Incirlik air base
following its troop withdrawal from Iraq.
On the same issue, the journalist, Ece Temelkuran, said she was
fired
from her job as a columnist at the daily newspaper Haberturk because of the critical stance she took on
the incident, in which Turkish air force jets killed
diesel fuel and cigarette smugglers, many of them
less than 17 years of age. The Turkish military said it
believed the smugglers were insurgents from the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has
taken the case of Roboski
massacre to the International Criminal Court ICC on
January 24, 2012.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Sources: firatnewws.com | AFP | ekurd.net
| Agencies
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