Families of Uludere victims file objection against verdict dismissing investigation

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

The petition of objection was delivered to the Air Force’s military court by the lawyers of the victims’ families. AA Photo

Families of the Uludere/Roboski massacre victims filed a formal objection Jan. 21 against the military prosecutor’s dismissal of the investigation into the case.

The General Staff’s Military Prosecutor’s Office on Jan. 7 dismissed the investigation into the massacre, in which 34 civilians were killed in an air strike, saying in its ruling military officers have made an “inevitable” mistake while performing their duty.

The petition of objection was delivered to the Air Force’s military court by the lawyers of the victims’ families.

Deputy chair of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Meral Danış Beştaş said they would not expect a positive conclusion despite the objection.

“We have to appeal the verdict in order to bring the case to the Constitutional Court,” Beştaş said. “We will take the case to the zone of international law if we don’t get a result after trying the case in domestic law.”

The air strikes were carried out near the Turkish-Iraqi border in the village of Ortasu (Roboski in Kurdish) in Şırnak’s Uludere district on Dec. 28, 2011 and cost the lives of thirty-four civilian villagers after they were allegedly mistaken for outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants as they smuggled goods into Turkey.

“It was understood the actions of the members of the Turkish Armed Forces involved in the incident did not necessitate opening a civil law suit, as they fell into an inevitable error while performing their duty in line with Parliament’s and Cabinet’s decrees,” military prosecutors said in the ruling.