On Dec. 29, an overnight Turkish air strike left at least 35 Kurdish civilians dead in northern Iraq near the Turkish border. Most of the casualties were youths between 17 and 20 years old from a small border town, Uludere, in the Sirnak province of southeast Turkey.
An initial statement by the military denied that there were civilians in the area and claimed the strikes had targeted armed Kurdish rebels. Later reports forced the Turkish government to admit that the victims were indeed civilians. In a news conference, Huseyin Celik, a spokesperson for the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), described the air strikes as an “operational mistake.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was busy hosting a Hollywood actor the same day, did not release any statements.
In a news conference in Diyarbakir, a city in southeast Turkey that is mainly Kurdish, the deputy chair-woman of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said: “This is a massacre, this country’s warplanes bombed a group of its own citizens to destroy them. This is a war crime and a crime against humanity.” BDP also announced a three-day mourning period for the victims.
Thousands of angry protesters gathered in Diyarbakir denouncing the massacre and the policies of the governing AKP. There were clashes between protesters and the police.
Also, in Taksim Square, Instanbul, despite a heavy police presence, a demonstration was attended by a large crowd including members of the BDP and various other political organizations. In his address to the crowd, BDP deputy Ertugrul Kurkcu said, “There is only one terrorist in this incident and that is no one but the state itself.”
Kurkcu also called for the resignation of the chief of staff of the military as well as the minister of internal affairs. After the rally, while the crowd was dispersing, the police detained an unidentified number of protesters.
In a statement released by the Turkish Communist Party (TKP), it was noted that this recent massacre was simply an extension of the oppressive policies of the Turkish state against its Kurdish citizens and the working class in general and that the people should not succumb to these policies and instead stand up for equality and justice.
Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally of imperialism in the region. Turkey is the third biggest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel and Egypt. Turkey has carried out a brutal campaign in the mainly Kurdish southeast that caused the destruction of thousands of villages and deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds. Throughout this campaign, the United States has been its major supporter and supplier of arms.
