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9 years ago the Roboski-Massacre happened, where Recep Tayyip Erdogan "mistakenly" killed 34 Kurdish "smugglers" near the border between Northern Kurdistan and Southern Kurdistan. I would like to take the opportunity to talk about some key points to know about this massacre. (1)
First thing to know is that this attack was conducted by not only good old American F-16 jets but conducted with US-intelligence that suggested the 40 civilians that were bombed that day were PKK fighters. That's on US allies. (2) https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303877604577380480677575646?mod=WSJEUROPE_hpp_MIDDLESecondNews
2nd thing to know is that being a "smuggler" is nothing new in this area or anywhere in Kurdistan. Since all countries occupying Kurdistan have throughout their history tried to economically deprive Kurds, smuggling is often the only means to survive. (3) https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/following-smugglers-in-kurdistan/
3rd to know is that there was no justice. The prime minister only once tried to compensate all families with 123,000 TL which is like 14k Euros, which the families refused. They also tried to go to court in TR and EU and were refused in both cases. (4) https://m.bianet.org/english/society/203991-met-with-impunity-in-turkey-roboski-massacre-to-be-taken-to-un
Remember: This all happened in Sirnak, the province which has faced the greatest number of casualties in the TR-PKK conflict over the last years and where the fight against the Turkish state was the strongest. This was a deliberate instance of inhumanity against this region. (5)
Up to this day Sirnak is one of the least developed areas in Turkey, where youth is given the choice of joining the armed struggle against the Turkish state or to migrate and assimilate completely. It's a unique example of Turkish Kurdistan policies since the 80s. (6)
Roboski also marks a changing point in the politics of Recep Tayyip Erdogan towards the Kurds. While the 2000s were shaped by a neoliberal-Islamic policy that tried to "accept" Kurdishness, if it is lived out in an Islamic AKP-frame, he gave up on that approach soon. (7)
Mind you: Even though this horrible attack happened, peace talks were initiated and actively endorsed by the Kurdish side in 2013, and people were pushed to go fully for the parliamentary route of political opposition. Sadly it did not lead to any inclusion. (8)
Kurdishness is up to this day met with the fiercest state violence, anti-Kurdish racism and chauvinism is rampant, the military fight with PKK is escalating, parliamentary opposition is on the verge of extinction with the HDP being criminalized more and more. (9)
So when we remember Roboski we should not remember it as a singular happening. It was a strategic and bloody massacre, it was ethnically motivated and not a single person faced justice for anything that happened. Roboski was the starting point for the war we have now. (10)
