By Dr. Amy L. Beam: Ferhat Encu is a Kurdish political prisoner and human rights activist from Roboski, Turkey. First the government killed his brother, then they killed their mules, then they killed their horses, then they put Ferhat Encu in prison. But the Turkish government will never succeed in killing 20 million Kurds or…
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Category Archives: Roboski massacre
Photos of Roboski Mule Massacre – March 23, 2015
By Dr. Amy L. Beam: On March 23, 2015, Turkish soldiers shot and killed eight mules at the Roboski border in southeast Turkey, near Kurdistan, Iraq. Tensions have been high between local villagers and military forces since the Roboski massacre of December 28, 2011, in which 34 innocent men and teenagers were killed by two…
Soldiers Slaughter Mules at Roboski
By Dr. Amy L. Beam: On March 23, 2015, at the border crossing between Roboski, Turkey, and Kurdistan, Iraq, soldiers shot and killed eight mules and wounded five (story corrected 25 March). Angry villagers gathered at the border as additional soldiers were sent to the border. Mules are used in cross-border trade to support the livelihood…
Reflections on the Roboski Massacre: How’s the Peace Process Doing?
By Dr. Amy L. Beam: On Dec 28, 2014, thousands of people will gather in the small mountain village of Roboski, Uludere in far southeast Turkey for the third year memorial of the Roboski massacre. As reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) May 15, 2012, the U.S. flew the drone over Roboski and passed…
Roboski: How a village of 1200 saved 20,000 Ezidi refugees with help of PKK
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: “If it were not for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) helping us all along the way, there would not be one Ezidi left alive today.” This was the same litany I heard repeated from dozens of refugees in camps in Roboski, Hilal, and Şirnak, in North Kurdistan (southeast Turkey). When…
PKK Refugees Arrested at Turkish Border while Roboski Kurds Welcome Refugees
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: On August 11, 2014, Today’s Zaman reported that 6 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members “escaped” from the PKK and entered into Turkey at the Harbur border gate, south of Silopi, where they “turned themselves in”. According to an unnamed security officer interviewed on August 15, the six men are being…
The linguistics of smuggling oil into Turkey: Roboski vs. Erbil
By Dr. Amy L. Beam (Mount Ararat Trek): Smuggling is, legally speaking, the exportation and importation of goods across borders without paying government taxes. For those who believe their activities are legal, theirs is an import/export business. The terms are applied selectively to influence perception of the event, like the terms terrorist and anti-terrorist. The…
‘No justice’ for Roboski massacre victims
KT News: A Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader yesterday denounced the decision of Turkish military prosecutors that there will be no prosecutions in relation to the December 2011 Roboski massacre. “With today’s verdict, one more blow has been inflicted on justice,” said Sebahat Tuncel, deputy co-chairwoman of the BDP. “I denounce the Roboski massacre….
Turkey’s Kurds demand answers on Roboski Massacre as part of Kurdish Peace Process
By a Correspondent: The identity of the author of this report must remain anonymous. A Turkish court has banned journalists in Turkey from writing about the Roboski massacre. Over 50 Kurdish journalists and editors are in prison in Turkey, accused of associating with a terrorist organization for their reporting on Kurdish issues. On December 28,…
‘True reconciliation must happen through Roboski’
KT News: Human rights activists in north Kurdistan spoke out yesterday against the official parliamentary report into the Roboski massacre, arguing that it is a cover-up and that an honest accounting of the state’s killing of 34 unarmed, mostly teenage smugglers should be integral to the peace process. Bianet quotes Mazlumder (Organization of Human Rights…
Opposition report says 34 Roboski victims were deliberately killed
KT News: According to a Turkish opposition MP, the 34 young victims of an air strike in December 2011 were deliberately targeted – even though the authorities knew that they were unarmed smugglers – because it was wrongly believed that a senior PKK official was traveling with them. Bianet reports that Levent Gök, a Republican…
Uludere Draft Report ignores real culprits says BDP deputy
By bianet: Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü has criticized the ratification of the Uludere Parliamentary Commission draft report, saying that it aims to protect the Turkish state rather than its citizens. A parliamentary commission in charge of investigating the Uludere incident – the Turkish military air strike that killed 34 civilians in…
Kurdish Children Massacred in Roboski
By Dr. Amir Sharifi: In the midst of a narrow and snow covered trail, when the dark mist was rising, when an eagle had perched on a mountain rock, in a shroud of mist, a caravan of men was returning to the village. The caravan had just crossed the border that had crossed them a long…
Timeline: What happened in Roboski?
By bianet: December 28 2012 marked the first anniversary of Roboski Massacre, when 34 Kurdish civilians on the southeastern border lost their lives after a Turkish military air strike. While the official investigation has yet to develop into prosecutions, the beloved ones of the Roboski victims demand justice. December 28, 2011: Television channels broke the…
Roboskî
By Dilar Dirk: It was a cold winter‘s day in the snowy mountains of Roboskî, when 34 lives were taken. Their bodies were found, burnt and lifeless. Selam’s mother recognized her son by his feet, and humanity yet has to awaken. To make a little pocket money, they crossed the border on their mules to…
