Mardin village massacre

Following the massacre of 44 people at an engagement celebration in a village in the southeastern province of Mardin, DTP Istanbul MP Sabahat Tuncel commented on the event.

“We are talking about a slaughter where even unborn children were killed.”

“Most were children and women. This is a situation that makes one think. First of all, whatever the reason of the massacre, we need to condemn it and prevent any other events like it.”

However, she questioned whether anyone in Turkey could guarantee that there would be no more massacres like it.

Village guard system

“There are 60 to 70 thousand village guards, and they are armed, receive wages and are used against the Kurdish people in the region. For instance, when people trie to return to the villages that were forcible emptied, the village guards use their weapons to prevent their return.”

Tuncel pointed to the underlying fact that all village guards were men, and this was why the massacre was being discussed in terms of a problem of masculinity, in terms of women, and why women were being killed.

“Men feel much more powerful with arms and with state support. There are ‘honour killings’ in Turkey, but the event in Mardin shows that the situation is much more desperate. We find it difficult to explain what happened from one perspective only.”

The MP added that she had proposed a motion in parliament for the issue to be investigated.

“But there is one thing that this massacre made clear: Turkey has got a village guard system that needs to be questioned, and we can see what the state’s policies of supporting feudalism and tribalism in the region result in.” (EZÖ/AG)