Robozik: “For 11 years the pain in our hearts is the same”

“Our pain is still the same as the day of the bombing. It is the same as it was 11 years ago. They taught us how we live with this pain.”

Zeki Tosun says these words. Tosun’s 23-year-old son was killed in Robozik in 2011.

11 years have passed since the incident, which is known as “Robozik Massacre”.

34 people, most of them children, lost their lives in the bombing in Robozika Qilaban Şirnak.

Over the years, no one was found responsible and no one was prosecuted. The case was filed by the families and returned to the European Court of Human Rights.

Botan Times talked about the latest situation of the Robozik case with the family, the lawyer of the case, and the Human Rights Association (İHD).

“The state says we will give you money and you will forget your heartache!”

Zeki Tosun, whose 23-year-old son Mehmet Ali Tosun was killed in the massacre, says that since the day of the incident, they have been asking for one thing, and that is justice.

According to Tosun, government officials want to make them forget their pain with money. Tosun says, “Until now, no one has been arrested, how can our pain be eased and our hearts relieved.”

In 2012, the Prime Minister of Turkey wanted to pay 123,000 lira for each person killed, but the families of Robozik did not accept that compensation.

After the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, former Minister of Energy Berat Albayrak stated that members of the Fethullah Gulen Group, which the Turkish government considers a terrorist organization, were involved in the Robozik incident.

After Albayrak’s speeches, Robozik’s families applied to the Constitutional Court for the second time.

The case of Robozik, which faced rescission, become the main topic of conversation with the efforts of the family and lawyers

Lawyer Kisaparmak: If the court accepts, the investigation will be reopened

The lawyer of the Robozik families and human rights activist Kerem Kısaparmak states that they have appealed to the Constitutional Court for the second time and if the court accepts the investigation will be reopened.

Regarding the status of the case, Kısaparmak says that their main goal is to prevent past mistakes from being repeated and Robozik to enter Turkey’s agenda once again.

Lawyer Kısaparmak is not hopeful about the Turkish court, but he says, “If an investigation is opened in the case of Robozik, then European court will open for us once again. This is our goal.”

Diyarbakır IHD President: Robozik is state violence!

Abdullah Zeytun, the head of the İHD of Diyarbakır, also says about Robozik that this is the violence of the state that will never leave the Kurds’ memory.

Zeytun states that the massacre was caused directly by the state, but like other incidents against the Kurds, it went unpunished.

He says that as IHD, they will always be with the struggle of Robozik families to call for an account.

What happened on the night of the 28th of Kanun 2011?

On December 28, 2011, as a result of the bombardment of the Turkish army, most of them were children, and a total of 34 villagers of Robozika, Qilaban Şirnex were killed.

In 2013, the Diyarbakir Republican Prosecutor’s Office issued a “decree of lack of duty” for the buyer and handed over the case to the military prosecution.

In 2014, the military prosecutor’s office declared that the soldiers had done their job, that there was a fault, and did not allow the case to be filed.

The lawyers of the families appealed to the Constitutional Court in 2015, but the court rejected the file due to a lack of documents.

This decision was an excuse for the European Court of Human Rights and it returned the Roboski file in 2018.

The families appealed to the Constitutional Court for the second time and are still waiting for the court’s decision.

Headline-Photo: Wikipedia

Note: This news was translated from Kurdish into English by Yonca Sarsılmaz.

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