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Military blocks commemoration of Kurdish villagers killed in bomb attack

Kurdish people carry symbolic coffins of 34 Turkish-Kurdish civilians and shout slogans during a demostration on December 28, 2014 in Istanbul. The demostration marks the third anniversary of the December 28, 2011 killing of 34 Turkish-Kurdish civilians working as smugglers at the Turkey-Iraq border in a botched raid by Turkish military jets, known as the Roboski strike, that mistook the group for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

 

The Turkish military has prevented families of the Uludere (Roboski) victims from commemorating 34 Kurdish villagers who were killed in a bomb attack by the Turkish armed forces in 2011.

The village of Roboski was cordoned off by the military according to a pro- Kurdish media sources while soldiers reportedly threatened to arrest six residents of Roboski currently in custody if any commemoration were to be held. Nazife Encü, wife of detainee Veli Encü, was told at the police station that if they went to the cemetery, the detainees, who include peace activists, would be arrested.

The soldiers also blocked access to the cemetery in which the victims of the unresolved incident are buried.

On Dec. 28, 2011 Turkish military jets bombed 34 villagers from Roboski. The initial statements claimed that the villagers were thought to be terrorists traveling along the Iraqi-Turkish border.

Five years into the investigation, no concrete findings have been presented to the public on the details of the Uludere incident.

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