Gov’t tries to cover up Uludere: Main opposition

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Kılıçdaroğlu slammed the government over the draft report of the parliamentary commission assigned to shed the light on the Uludere massacre. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The government is trying to cover up the Uludere incident of December 2011 and a draft report by a parliamentary panel on the incident clearly reveals that intention, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said.

“The parliamentary commission assigned to examine the truth about the incident undertook a function to blacken out the truth. The prime minister said on Jan. 24, 2012 that the incident would not be lost in the dark corridors of Ankara ... But today, contrary to what he said then, Erdoğan is trying to cover up the incident in which 34 of our citizens were massacred,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in his address to his party’s parliamentary group meeting yesterday. 

The Uludere incident refers to the death of 34 civilian villagers in a botched air strike on Dec. 28, 2011, when they were allegedly mistaken for militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as they smuggled oil as well as other goods from northern Iraq.

The CHP leader’s remarks came after a sub-commission of Parliament’s Human Rights Examination Commission revealed its long expected draft report on the Uludere incident and claimed that a flaw in coordination between military and security officials was the main reason behind the killings.

“An issue that could have been clarified in 14 days has not been unraveled for 14 months. I am repeatedly asking two questions: From whom was the intelligence received? And who ordered the bombing? We have received no answers to these questions up to today,” he said.

‘No copy of report’

The CHP leader also criticized the parliamentary panel who did not allow commission members to keep a copy of the draft report, on the grounds that it could be leaked to the press.

“This is a shameful scene for our democracy. I’m appealing to Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, how can a commission head take back the copies of reports? Is there any other such example of unlawful and unethical behavior in the tradition of the Turkish Parliament?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.