Buldan: Terrorist are those who committed the Roboski massacre

Kurdish citizens killed in Roboski were commemorated on the 9th anniversary of the massacre. HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan said, "If they are looking for murderers and terrorists, they should look at those who committed the Roboski Massacre."

In the 9th year of the Roboski Massacre, those who lost their lives were commemorated in a ceremony attended by HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan, HDK co-spokesperson İdil Uğurlu, DTK co-chair Berdan Öztürk, DBP co-chairs Saliha Aydeniz and Keskin Bayındır, HDP party spokesperson Ebru Günay, members of central executive committee and party assembly, MPs Alican Önlü, Feleknas Uca, Hasan Özgüneş, Hüseyin Kaçmaz, Kemal Bülbül, Nuran İmir, Sezai Temelli and Tayip Temel. Zeki Tosun and HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan spoke on behalf of the Roboski families at the commemoration held in the cemetery in the village.

Speaking after Tosun's speech in Kurdish, Buldan said the following;

‘’It has been 9 years since Roboski massacre. This painful process, this massacre, is an indescribable pain. This was not an accident, of course. This was an overt massacre. It was a massacre in which the State, the government dropped bombs knowingly and willingly on Roboski people and committed a massacre openly.

This history has witnessed such pain for years. These mountains, these stones are the memory of pain, tears, anger. This memory is the historical memory of the Kurdish people. We are talking about a historic massacre that will never be forgotten and whose account will one day be asked.

The Maraş massacre, the Dersim massacre, the Zilan massacre are no different from the Roboski massacre. The Sur and Cizre massacres are not different from this massacre. But what kills us the most is the lawlessness against the Kurds. It is the anti-Kurdish mentality and policy that killed us the most. Those who committed this massacre have been protected and not brought to justice, not punished.

This massacre was carried out with the decision of the National Security Council of Turkey (MGK) meeting on 28 December 2011. Although people were massacred with bombs dropped from the warplanes of this country, not another country, and the National Security officials of that period, the prime minister of the period, and all those responsible of that period were known, no legal action was taken.

There were some shortcomings at that time. Roboski families applied to the Constitutional Court, but the Constitutional Court did not accept this file due to the missing documents not submitted by the Şırnak Bar Association.

The families also brought the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). However, it did not accept the case on the grounds that domestic remedies in Turkey were not exhausted. As HDP, of course, there have been some aspects that we lacked legally. It is our great deficiency that we did not do the inspection and follow-up process well, could not follow the process legally and we were faced with this decision as a result of this non-prosecution.

However, it should not mean that everything is over. With the AKP leaving, the new governments will follow hard after this issue. We, as HDP, have to somehow compensate for the shortcomings made by our Legal Commission from now on.

Now, the ECtHR's decision regarding Selahattin Demirtaş is not only an important decision, but also a decision that concerns the Roboski case very closely. The Court's decision on Demirtas covers all of lawlessness in Turkey, all the irregularities, the whole of the injustice done the Kurds.

Therefore, we would like to make an open call to the government from here. You have to reopen this case. You said ‘this event will not remain in the dark corridors of Ankara’. However, this event is still in the dark corridors of Ankara. It is up to you to remove this from those dark corridors as soon as possible, to do what is necessary and to punish them.

Turkish newspaper headlines said "The state bombed its people". Erdogan, who was the prime minister at the time, replied; "The state cannot bomb its people." Why did he make such a statement? To cover the incident, to watch over those responsible. But those who dropped the bombs were obvious, everything was planned.

The government punished families, not those who committed the crime. Those who have kept Ferhat Encü, one of the children of these families, in prison for years, and those who are currently holding Veli Encü in prison, should know that if a murderer and terrorist is wanted in this country, they should look back at those who committed the Roboski Massacre.

Therefore, as HDP, we will fully endorse the fulfilment of our painful families' demands and stand by them. Nobody has any doubts about this, we will do everything that needs to be done politically and legally. Here once again we promise in the presence of our families. We share your pain wholeheartedly. Once again, I wish God's mercy on our 34 souls who lost their lives.’’