Discussions on U.S. Intelligence

Government authorities, Parliamentary commission, prosecutor's office and the opposition parties reacted to the Wall Street Journal article on the U.S. drones spotting images before the Roboski massacre bombing.

"There is no confirmation"

"This news is not confirmed by Turkish and American authorities. There are only rumors" said Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ.

"This is just speculation, we do not take it seriously" said the Head of Uludere Sub-Commission, Justice and Development Party Sakarya Deputy Ayhan Sefer Üstün. "There's no official information saying that there were any Predator images submitted. The images handed to the sub-commission were Heron images. There are 9 hours of uncut footage from Heron."

"The news explains that the Americans had also seen the same images. There are no implications of U.S. intelligence"

"Military Electronics Industries (ASELSAN) determined the shift on the images caused by the coordinates of F-16."

"It's a political murder"

Vice President and Spokesman of the Republican People's Party  (CHP) Birgül Ayman Güler said"Since the beginning, we claimed it was not 'fate', 'destiny' or 'accident'. Since the very beginning we repeatedly asked  the source of the intelligence.; however, we were not provided with an explanation.  U.S replied instead." Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had claimed that it was a national intelligence information. We consider that the government is guilty of the massacre of 34 people and that it is a political murder and the crime of the government" told

"What had happened after this intelligence provided?

Co-Chairman of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Selahattin Demirtaş talked to Aslı Aydıntaşbaş from Milliyet:

"It was'nt a secret that the intelligence was provided from the U.S. Predator. What is newsworthy on this information is the existance of the mechanism between the two countries and the establlishment of a joint desk, the  Combined Intelligence Fusion Cell in Ankara.

"U.S is just providing the intelligence only. It is the government's responsiblility to find out who have initiated the operation based on this intelligence, suspend them and investigate. What happened after they received this intelligence?"

"Who was at the office when those images arrived? It must have been a senior officer. They must have acted under a chain of command.  I guess that night they also asked the verbal approval of Prime Minister Erdoğan, that's why no one investigates the details."

Who gave the order?

BDP Mersin Deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü talked to Fırat News Agency (ANF):

"The General Staff is hiding the facts. As much as determining the intelligence source, it's as important to find out who murdered these villagers . We now see that it's not the wrongdoing of some lower ranking military officials, but it is the U.S. and Turkish government authorities that are responsible for that massacre."

"The target determination made by Turkey"

CHP Ankara Deputy Levent Gök made a statement to T24:

"Although the intelligence is provided from U.S predators, the Turkish authorities made the target acquisition.

"We watched the Heron images. The General Staff informed us that the intelligence was provided by national sources. Now everything has become more complicated." (AS)