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Turkey clears army over deadly attack on
civilian Kurds in Roboski
7.1.2014 |
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January 7, 2014
ISTANBUL,— Turkish military prosecutors
on Tuesday cleared five army officers accused of
perpetrating a botched air strike on civilian Kurds
in 2012 also known as "Roboski Massacre" that killed
dozens of people including children.
But the ruling was immediately denounced by Kurdish
groups and representatives of the victims' families
as unacceptable.
In December 2012, Turkish fighter jets bombed the
Kurdish town of Uludere in Turkish Kurdistan on the
Iraqi Kurdistan region border,
killing 34
Kurdish civilians, working as smugglers, including
19 children in an attack Kurdish politicians
described as a "massacre" of civilians.
The army had said it had carried out the strike
after a spy drone spotted a group moving towards its
sensitive southeastern border in an area known to be
used by Kurdish militants.
"Members of the Turkish Armed Forces acted in
accordance with the decisions adopted by the Council
of Ministers and the law," the army prosecutor's
office said.
It was referring to a government edict authorising
the army to bomb Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
hideouts in Iraqi Kurdistan region.
"The army personnel made an unavoidable mistake
while performing their duties," the prosecutor's
office said, dropping the charges against five army
officers implicated in the case.
Tahir Elci, the head of the bar association in the
Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) which represents
the families of victims,www.Ekurd.net
denounced the ruling as "unacceptable" and said it
plans to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
"We could not expect any another decision from a
military court," he was quoted as saying by CNN Turk
television.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) also
slammed the ruling as "unfair", with co-leader Meral
Denis Bektas saying: "These people died for
nothing."
DTK: Roboski decision once
again legitimated the massacre of Kurds
Democratic Society Congress (DTK) has released a
statement in Diyarbakir (Amed) in response to
military prosecutor's decision not to prosecute in
the investigation into the Roboski massacre.
DTK commented the decision as a legal scandal that
deepened the wound in the heart of the Kurdish
people.
DTK emphasized that the non-prosecution decision was
a blow against human rights, justice, democracy,
brotherhood and equality, and manifested the level
the Turkish judiciary has reached, and the Turkish
state's mindset and its approach towards the Kurdish
people.
“The decision has once again legitimated the
massacre of Kurds. Turkey, a state which is
constantly being condemned both by consciences and
the ECHR for the right violations it has committed,
has made yet another decision to have itself
condemned. Every unanswered and untried massacre has
been a sign of other massacres”, DTK said.
"Everyone should know that the Kurdish people are
not who they were before, not anymore", DTK
underlined and remarked that the Kurdish people,
with all their institutions and structures, will
enhance the struggle in order for the exposure of
the truth.
The statement ended with a call to everyone with
conscience to adopt an attitude against the Roboski
decision.
Kurds have long considered the case as an important
step in the fragile peace process between the
Turkish state and the PKK, which has waged a deadly
armed struggle for an independent state since 1984.
The peace process stalled in September after Kurdish
rebels announced they were suspending their retreat
from Turkish soil, accusing the government of
failing to deliver on promised reforms.
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AFP | firatnews.com | Ekurd.net
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