New Campaign Aims to Push Government for Apology in Roboski

Signatures for Roboski, a campaign that dance choreographer and artist Zeynep Tanbay initiated on November 30 for pressuring the government to make a formal apology on the death of 34 Kurdish citizens in an air strike last year, has received wide national recognition including several intellectuals in Turkey.

The campaign was named after Roboski, a southeastern district officially recognized as Uludere by the Turkish state. Campaigners demanded the parliament to launch an official investigation to shed light on the role of military forces for the death of 34 civilians in "Roboski Massacre", a tragedy that government and military officials longtime blamed on the "wrong intelligence" from U.S. drones in December 2011.

Available to attend through change.org, the campaign aimed to send out the signatures to government officials including Presdient Gul, PM Erdogan, Head of the Turkish Parliament and Justice Minister.

"Turkish PM, Interior Minister and Head of Army humiliated the mourning families and beloved ones of 34 Kurdish citizens by attempting to cover up the tragedy. It has once more proved Turkish state's "kill and deny" policy since no thorough investigation was launched and the killings went unpunished. Compared to the Kurdish massacres in 1930s, what has changed on December 28, 2011? The Roboski Massacre became a landmark in this country. We, as the ones who dwell on the west side of Euphrates River, shall no longer keep silent for what is happening on the east side of the river," the campaign statement said. (BK/HK)