No justice for Roboski massacre victims after 10 years
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Tuesday is the 10th anniversary of the Roboski massacre when Turkish airstrikes killed 34 civilians. Even though a decade has passed, nobody has been charged, held responsible, or punished.
On Dec. 28, 2011, the Turkish Air Force bombed 40 civilians who were smuggling goods on mules from the Kurdistan Region to the northern side of the border, killing 34 of them.
Read More: In letter from Turkey prison, Kurdish leader commemorates Roboski massacre
For the past decade, families of the victims have been waiting for justice in Turkey and through the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but no one has been punished to date.
On December 28 2011, 34 residents of the village of #Roboski, 19 of which were minors, were torn from life by aerial bombings by the Turkish army. In this border region. pic.twitter.com/B6HXOUbieF
— Zehra Doğan (@zehradogan_net) December 27, 2021
Since the necessary documents submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) were sent too late, the ECHR rejected the application in 2018.
The case is closed, and no one has been jailed for the massacre.
The only ones who have been jailed or prosecuted are family members of the massacre victims.
Veli Encu, who lost his brother Serhat in the airstrike, and Barış Encu, who lost his brother Nevzat, are in prison for protesting the massacre, the Kurdish ANF agency reported.
Former politician of the pro-Kurdish HDP (People's Democratic Party), Ayhan Bilgen, told Kurdistan 24 that it's not acceptable the case was closed and no one punished for the massacre.
"Roboski is an open wound that bleeds and causes great trauma," he said.
The HDP in Europe tweeted that the government was responsible for the massacre.
"It's 10 years since the war planes of this government bombed and massacred 34 people in Roboski, the majority of them children," it said. "Neither Roboski, nor the massacres perpetrated in other cities to be forgotten."
Levent Gök, an MP for the Republican People's Party (CHP), recalled that incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he would not allow the case to be forgotten. Erdogan was the prime minister when the Roboski massacre happened.
"But there is currently no mechanism in the judiciary, the state and under the auspices of parliament to handle this case," Gök told Kurdistan 24.
"This is because all government and state officials have a hand in this incident. The case is closed and lost," he said.
He said the CHP would set up an investigation in the parliament to investigate the incident.
Additional reporting by Vural Erişmiş.