Kurdish family of 7 killed by Turkish nationalists

[Anthea]

Kurdish family of slaughtered

A Kurdish family of seven in Turkey’s Konya was murdered on Friday. The family had previously been victim of a reportedly racist attack

The Dedeogullari family, who lived in the Meram district of Konya, was killed on Friday evening, Mezopotamya Agency reported.

According to the outlet, the family of seven, including three women, was killed and their house was subsequently set on fire.

This was the second time the family was attacked this month. Family members told Rudaw at the time that their attackers were Turkish nationalists who did not want Kurds living in the area.

The lawyer of the family confirmed the deaths on Twitter. “The scoundrels murdered my clients. We warned them many times. They killed 7 people, three of whom were women,” Abdurrahman Karabulut said.

The governor of Konya said the family was shot dead. He vowed the perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice.

“In Konya the black and ruthless face of tyranny was once again evident. Fascists taking strength and courage from the state again attacked a Kurdish family and killed 7 people. We do not accept this,” HDP said in a tweet.

The Kurdistan Region Presidency also issued a condemnation: “We condemn the attack against a Kurdish family in Turkey and our thoughts and prayers are with victims’ family and loved ones. Those responsible for this senseless crime must be brought to justice.”

This is the latest in a string of reportedly racist attacks on Kurds in Turkey. Earlier this month, one person was killed when gunmen shot at the car of a Kurdish family. In May, Turkish authorities arrested three people in connection with what was described as a “racist attack” in Mersin against a Kurdish family from Erbil.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... /300720212

[Anthea]

Attacks against Kurds must end

All seven members of the family who were at home at the time were injured, some spending days under intensive care. On Friday, the same family was attacked again and seven of them were killed. Only one member of the family has survived

Several similar attacks on Kurds have been reported in Turkey this year. “It seems that such massacres will continue,” Mahmut Alinak, a veteran Kurdish politician and writer told Rudaw English on Saturday.

“I believe that the state is the source of all these attacks,” he claimed. There are nationalist groups believed to be affiliated with the Turkish state, such groups want “Kurds to be terrified,” he said.

There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times denied the very existence of Kurds. The word “Kurdistan” is banned from the parliament, most Kurdish private media is closed, and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is under immense pressure with hundreds of its members in jail. An armed Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has waged a decades-long conflict with the state.

Alinak believes the problems can be solved. “We can stop these massacres if all democratic forces come together and resolve the issue. There is a solution,” he said, pointing out that no party would benefit from a widening conflict between Turks and Kurds. It is not in the favor of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the attacks to continue, he said, “because such a thing will end the AKP and it knows this very well.”

Yasar Dedeoglu, 65, and his family moved from the Kurdish-majority Kars province to Konya more than two decades ago. They d lived in Konya’s Meram district for some 15 years, where their neighbours are Turks.

The Konya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Saturday that there has been enmity between the Dedeoglu family and another for 11 years, denying any racial aspect to the attack. "It was determined that the incident resulted from the conflict and hostility between the two neighboring families for 11 years. The allegations that the action was committed with the motive of racial hatred do not reflect the truth," it said, reported Ajans Haber.

The family, however, said they were targeted because they are Kurds. Yasar spoke to Rudaw on July 12, the day his alleged attackers went on trial for the May incident. “They said: ‘We are Ulkucu [Idealists]. We will remove you from here. You are Kurds and do not deserve to stay here.’ They have been saying this for 12 years,” said Yasar, referring to a group that is affiliated with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) Grey Wolves.

The family said at the time that their lives were in danger, but most of the suspects were released. The family’s lawyer, Abdurrahman Karabulut, said the release of the attackers led to the second attack. Therefore, “the authorities are responsible for what happened,” he told Arti TV on Friday.

A human rights monitor also said authorities knew the Kurdish family was at risk but “failed to protect” them. “For months an increasingly hateful & racist discourse against Kurds & against HDP from the far right & pro govt media [is] pumping out conspiracy theories,” tweeted Emma Sinclair-Webb, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Associate Director.

The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), a non-profit organization working for free speech in Turkey, condemned what it called the “racially motivated massacre” of the family, adding that it is “the result of increasingly common hate speech and impunity for hate crimes.”

The murder of the family is the latest in a string of attacks on Kurds and the pro-Kurdish HDP.

Hakim Dal, a 43-year-old Kurd, was killed in the same district of Meram on July 21. The family, originally from Diyarbakir, had been previously attacked.

Deniz Poyraz, the daughter of an HDP official, was killed when the party’s office in Izmir came under attack in mid-June.

In a statement on Saturday, the HDP that it has previously warned the government that such attacks will continue if it fails to prosecute the perpetrators “effectively.”

“We shared our concerns that if the government does not stop its criminalizing smear campaigns and incessant hate speech against the HDP and against the Kurds in general, and if they fail to prosecute the perpetrators effectively, many more bloody attacks are likely to happen,” said the party.

“Seven people had been arrested on 14 May but five of them have been released since then, despite repeated objections of the family’s lawyer,” it added. “As we said before, these racist attacks are the result of criminalization policies carried out by the AKP-MHP coalition against Kurds and the HDP.”

Turkish politicians and authorities have condemned the attack, often denying any link with racism and claiming the fact that the victims are Kurds is being exploited.

“The massacre, abhorrent attack, and cowardly scheme in Konya is being exploited. This has nothing to do with Turk-Kurd issue. Considering it that way is as dangerous as the attack itself,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters in Antalya late Friday.

Kurdish tourists from the Kurdistan Region have also been attacked in Turkey. A family from Erbil assaulted in Mersin province in mid-May claimed that the perpetrators cursed at them for being Kurds.

Kurdistan Region authorities usually refrain from commenting on Kurdish-related matters outside of their own borders. However, President Nechirvan Barzani’s office and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani both condemned the attack.

Cetin is the only surviving member of the Dedeoglu family. He lives in the UK but had returned to Turkey after his family was attacked in May. “They do not want my family to stay here only because we are Kurds. This area is populated by Turks. We want justice,” he told Rudaw on July 12. The seven family members who were killed are Yasar, his three daughters: Serap, 36, Serpil, 32, and Sibel, 30, and his two sons: Metin, 45, and Baris, 35.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... y/31072021

[Anthea]

My thoughts:

The only way forward is for barbaric Turks to leave the Kurdish homeland to rule itself and become part of a United Kurdistan

Stop Turkification and Arabization of Kurds