SKS statement: Turkey bombing of Kurds on 28 December 2011

Turkish war planes bomb Kurds and massacre 40 children and youth in Sirnak, South East Turkey.
Turkish war planes bombed villagers in the South East province of Sirnak, Turkey, killing at least 40 civilians, many of them children and youth on 28 December 2011. 24 of those killed belonged to the same family. A villager who escaped the air attack wounded said that the bombs thrown sucked the air away and left them breathless, spread an acidic smell and burnt them. Other villagers who hid under a large rock to escape, were crushed by the rock said the villager. Another villager said that Turkish soldiers had apprehended them only moments before the attack and then had moved away. The bodies of 35 civilians have been found while the corpses of others are still to be discovered because of the obliteration caused by the bombing.

Who is going to say “STOP” to the Turkish state and AKP government bombing their civilian citizens? This state and government recently bombed Kurdish guerrillas using chemical weapons and irreparably damaged the land of Kurdistan.

What are the states that view the intervention to Middle Eastern states on human rights grounds as legitimate going to do against the Turkish states use of arms against civilians? On one hand the Turkish state is arresting civilians, politicians, lawyers, intellectuals and children, more than 5000 people in total, on the other they are massacring Kurdish civilians. This openly shows that there is a systematic plan to break the will of a people by different forms of violence.

As International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS we are joining with others to call on international public opinion, democratic NGOs, and other democratic international organizations to condemn the actions of the Turkish state.

Furthermore we are calling on the UK, EU and US as well as all other states to begin an arms embargo.

We also ask the governments of the international community to use their relations with Turkey to stop the persecution of Kurds, and to bring about changes that enable the Kurds to exercise their human rights.

International Support Kurds in Syria Association – SKS
30.12.2011

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