ECHR rejects Roboski case appeal by families of victims

ANKARA

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on May 17 dismissed an appeal in the Roboski case involving the Turkish army’s killing of dozens in the southeastern province of Şırnak in 2011, terming it “inadmissible.” 

A total of 34 civilians, who were allegedly mistaken for outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants smuggling goods into Turkey, were killed on Dec. 28, 2011 in attacks carried out by F-16s and unmanned aerial vehicles in the incidents. 

The families of the people killed in the Roboski massacre took the case to the ECHR back in August 2016.

A total of 281 people were involved in the application, saying the fact that the airstrike carried out in the Uludere district of the southeastern province of Şırnak had not been “properly investigated and violates the right to live.”

Confirming the Turkish Constitutional Court’s decision in 2014, the European Court ruled the applicants had failed to submit essential documents for the examination of the appeal in time and thus, the Turkish court’s decision was not arbitrary.

The court also ruled the applicants failed to give a reason to justify their late and missing submission of the documents.

The ECHR also said the application had been rejected as all domestic remedies had yet to be exhausted.

In a statement on Dec. 30, 2011, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) denied responsibility for the massacre carried out near the village of Ortasu (“Roboski” in Kurdish) in Uludere.