Roboski Massacre
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The Roboski massacre (), also known as the Uludere incident, took place on December 28, 2011, at Ortasu, Uludere near the Iraq-Turkey border, when the
Turkish Air Force The Turkish Air Force () is the Air force, air and space force of the Turkish Armed Forces. It traces its origins to 1 June 1911 when it was founded as the Ottoman Aviation Squadrons, Aviation Squadrons by the Ottoman Empire. It was composed ...
bombed a group of
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
civilians who had been involved in smuggling gasoline and cigarettes, killing 34. According to a statement of the Turkish Air Force, the group was mistaken for members of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...
(PKK).


Incident

A group of 40
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
villagers were moving on the night of December 28, 2011, from
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
i territory towards the Turkish border. They were mostly teenagers from the Encü family of Ortasu in the
Uludere Uludere () is a town and the seat of the Uludere District in the Şırnak Province of Turkey. The town is populated by Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous ...
district of
Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...
, Turkey. According to Turkish information, they were smuggling
cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...
s,
diesel oil Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...
, and other goods packed on
mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...
s into Turkey.
Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...
(TAF) received information about activities in the region on the night of December 28, which was supplied by United States intelligence services based on a U.S. drone footage. The TAF and
Yaşar Güler Yaşar Güler (born 18 September 1954) is a retired Turkish general currently serving as the Minister of National Defense. He previously served as the 30th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces from 2018 to 2023. Career He en ...
reviewed the footage from the
unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
s flying over the terrain and evaluated the smugglers as a group of militants of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...
(PKK). Then Yaşar Güler later conveyed the issue to General
Hulusi Akar Hulusi Akar (born 12 March 1952) is a retired four-star Turkish Armed Forces general who served as the Minister of National Defense from 2018 to 2023. He previously served as the 29th chief of the Turkish General Staff. Akar also served as a bri ...
. A few hours later at around 20:00, upon the instructions of Chief of General Staff General
Necdet Özel Necdet Özel (born 1950) is a Turkish general, who served as the 28th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces. He also served as the commander of the Turkish Land Forces. Özel is only the second in this position not to have NATO ex ...
, an air operation launched.
Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...
officials were quoted as saying that American drones initially spotted the group, but after alerting the Turks their offer to conduct more detailed surveillance was declined, and "Turkish officers instead directed the Americans who were remotely piloting the drone to fly it somewhere else." Two
F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...
s of the
Turkish Air Force The Turkish Air Force () is the Air force, air and space force of the Turkish Armed Forces. It traces its origins to 1 June 1911 when it was founded as the Ottoman Aviation Squadrons, Aviation Squadrons by the Ottoman Empire. It was composed ...
bombed the area. The next morning, relatives searched for the missing people, and found the bodies of the victims. 34 people belonging to the group were killed during and shortly after the airstrike. Two smugglers escaped to Iraq. Only one survivor, Servet Encü, returned to his village. 28 of the dead were from the Encü family. The bodies, some of them burnt beyond recognition or dismembered, were transported to their hometown on mules due to the rough terrain. Servet Encü stated that generations of people in his village and neighboring settlements had been in the smuggling business due to financial need. He added that Iraqi traders brought diesel oil or tea by vehicles to within of the border, and the villagers bought the goods and brought them home on trails, which took about two and a half hours. He said that the smuggling action had been well known to the border security forces.


Funeral

The funeral of the victims, following an autopsy performed at the Uludere hospital, took place at a newly established cemetery between the villages Ortasu and Gülyazı. The funeral convoy, formed by about 1,000 vehicles and attended by a crowd of about 10,000 people, covered the distance of between the district center and the cemetery in one hour.


Protests

Major protests followed in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish cities. In
Diyarbakır Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is ...
, protests turned violent with police using batons and tear gas against protesters who threw stones and
Molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable l ...
at police. Protests were also held in
Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
and
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, where over 1,000 protesters gathered in
Taksim Square Taksim Square (, ), situated in BeyoÄŸlu in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops, and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the central station of th ...
; they threw stones at police and smashed vehicles before police dispersed the crowds with tear gas and water cannons. District governor Naif Yavuz, who was at the autopsy and the funeral service, later paid a condolence visit to the houses of the relatives of the victims. Shortly after his visit, he was attacked by a mob, which attempted to
lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica * Lynch's Crater, Queensland, Australia England * River Lynch, Hertfordshire * The Lynch, an island in the Rive ...
him. He escaped the attack with the help of his security guards, and was hospitalized for his injuries. The attack was made by people from outside the village. In
Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and LefkoÅŸa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...
, around 300 Kurdish Cypriots marched on the Turkish embassy in
Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, island of Cyprus. It is List of states with limited recognition, recognis ...
, where
Murat Kanatlı Murat may refer to: Places Australia * Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia * Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area France * Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier * Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal Elsew ...
, head of the left-wing
New Cyprus Party The New Cyprus Party ( Turkish: ''Yeni Kıbrıs Partisi'', YKP) is a democratic socialist Turkish-Cypriot political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is ...
, spoke to the crowd and accused Turkey of escalating tensions in the country's southeast. The demonstration ended peacefully. In
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
, a group of
Iranian Kurds Kurds in Iran (, ) constitute a large minority in the country with a population of around 9 and 10 million people. Most Iranian Kurds are bilingual in Kurdish and Persian. Geography Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ('), refers to the pa ...
demonstrated in front of the Turkish embassy. In
Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...
, Iraq, the killings were protested by some 500
Iraqi Kurds The Iraqi Kurds (, ) are the second largest ethnic group of Iraq. They traditionally speak the Kurdish languages of Sorani, Kurmanji, Feyli and also Gorani. Historically, Kurds in Iraq have experienced varying degrees of autonomy and marginal ...
, some of whom clashed with
Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...
security forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several countries, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of irregular military and paramilitar ...
; no casualties were reported. Some protesters carried pictures of
PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurdish militant political organization and armed gue ...
leader
Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He ...
and chanted "fight, fight for freedom" and "Erdogan is a terrorist". At the protest, Kurdish activist Ali Mahmoud told the press that "The crime ... is a real
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
, a
war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
and a
crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
, and breaches international laws, we demand that Turkey be judged in the
international court International courts are formed by treaties between Nation, nations, or by an international organization such as the United Nations – and include ''ad hoc'' tribunals and permanent institutions but exclude any courts arising purely under nationa ...
s."


Responses

Bahoz Erdal Bahoz Erdal, also known as Fahman Husein ( , also spelled Fehman Hüseyin) (born 3 August 1969), in Kurdistan in Syria is a top commander in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He is originally from Dêrik in Syrian Kurdistan. Biography Born in ...
, the leader of the PKK's military wing, called for a Kurdish uprising in response to the attack: "We urge the people of Kurdistan... to react after this massacre and seek a settling of accounts through uprisings." Meanwhile,
Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party (, , BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter party for its alleged conne ...
(BDP) leader
Selahattin Demirtaş Selahattin Demirtaş (born 10 April 1973) is a Kurdish politician, lawyer and author. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro- Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. Selahattin Demirt ...
released a statement claiming that "It’s clearly a massacre of civilians, of whom the oldest is 20," but he called for Kurds to respond through democratic means. He also quoted Erdoğan on
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
n President
Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...
: "A leader who kills his own people has lost his legitimacy" and said "now I say the same thing back to him." Prime minister
Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
made assurances that essential administrative and judicial investigations were initiated. Hüseyin Çelik, the deputy chairman and spokesman of the ruling party
AK Party The Justice and Development Party ( , AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources ...
, announced that the families of the victims would be compensated constituting a "material apology". He added that a verbal apology could follow after incident's details were uncovered. The
Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...
(CHP), Turkey's largest opposition party, sharply criticized what they perceived as the government's attempt to portray the incident as understandable collateral damage, with Kurdish CHP deputy Sezgin Tanrikulu saying that "If there are some who think that death of these innocents is just a natural result of the struggle against terror, it means that Turkey has already been divided on moral grounds." Graeme Wood at the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' blog asked if ErdoÄŸan was a 'New Assad' dictator and oppressor.Graeme Wood, "A Turkish Assad?" New York Times (blog), January 1, 2012. In a MetroPOLL public opinion survey of 1,174 Turkish people, 14.5% said the state was ultimately responsible for the deaths, 11.5% said the smugglers, 9.5% said the PKK, 5.4% said the prime minister of the government and 4.9% said it was the General Staff. When asked whether the government had fulfilled its responsibilities towards the incident, some 45% said yes, with 38.1% saying no.


Legal procedures

On March 22, 2013, a special investigative commission at the
Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
found that there had been no deliberate intent by the officials involved. On January 7, 2014, a criminal investigation against the state officials concluded with a plea of negligence. Various charges were also pressed against the civilians and families of the deceased, some of which ended in sentences against individuals.Timeline: What happened in Roboski?
.


Against officials involved

On January 9, 2012, the commander of the Gülyazı military border post near Roboski, Gendarmerie Colonel Hüseyin Onur Güney, was suspended from duty following a military investigation. 17 active duty army staff were also prosecuted for allowing border smuggling.
. ''Bianet''. 9 January 2012.
On January 9, 2012, a special commission to investigate the Uludere airstrike was established at the
Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
.
''Bianet''. 11 January 2012.
During the hearings, opposition MPs complained that the Ministry of Defence declined to answer questions and used the confidentiality order taken by the prosecutors office as an excuse.
Ayça Söylemez. ''Bianet''. 5 April 2012.
On March 22, 2013, the commission submitted an 85-page report which concluded that the military operation which ended with 34 civilian casualties was without deliberate intent.
''Bianet''. 22 March 2013.

Full text of the Investigative Commission Report on Uludere. Retrieved on 7 January 2014.
Three members of the commission from the opposition parties lodged a minute of dissent to the report, mainly criticising the lack of thorough investigation.
Ertuğrul Kürkçü. Retrieved on 7 January 2014.

Atilla Kaya. Retrieved on 7 January 2014.

Levent Gök. Retrieved on 7 January 2014.
The criminal investigation was administered by the Diyarbakır State Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutors admitted to being delayed while waiting for documents they had demanded from the office of Chief of General Staff, which were needed before they could interrogate military personnel."The Military Officials Not Interrogated"
, ''Bianet''. 25 May 2012.

''Bianet''. 29 May 2012.
Despite the limitations, prosecutors were able to confirm on August 6, 2012, that the villagers were clearly discernible from the footage of the unmanned aerial vehicle taken before the airstrike.Prosecutor Confirms Villagers Could Be Discerned in UAV Footages, ''Bianet''. 6 August 2012
.
The '' The Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal'' reported that it was a U.S. drone that spotted the group on the Iraqi border. On June 11, 2013, the Diyarbakır Prosecutor's Office, after investigating the case for more than 18 months, found negligence rather than deliberate intent by the military staff. They then declared a lack of jurisdiction and transferred the investigation to the military prosecutor.Diyarbakır Prosecutor's Office refers Uludere case to military
. ''Today's Zaman''. 11 June 2013.
On January 7, 2014, military prosecutors (the General Staff Military Prosecutor's Office) decided to not press charges (''
nolle prosequi , abbreviated or , is legal Latin meaning "to be unwilling to pursue".Nolle prosequi
. refe ...
'') against the military personnel, citing that no investigation was necessary for suspected military staff İlhan Bölük, Yıldırım Güvenç, Aygün Eker, Halil Erkek and Ali Rıza Kuğu as "they committed a major error but performed their duties within the given orders".Ayça Söylemez. 7 January 2014. "Nolle Prosequi in Roboski Massacre Case", ''Bianet''
.

Anadolu Agency. 7 January 2014.
(in Turkish). Retrieved on 7 January 2014. Previously, on May 23, 2012, then Minister of Interior
İdris Naim Şahin İdris Naim Şahin (born 1 June 1956, Ünye, Ordu, Turkey) is a Turkish politician who was elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 2002, representing Istanbul. He was appointed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 6 July 2011 by Pri ...
stated that the authorisation for the operation had been given at the air forces command centre in
Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
.
''Bianet''. 23 May 2012.
On January 7, 2014, it was reported that the Chief of General Staff,
Necdet Özel Necdet Özel (born 1950) is a Turkish general, who served as the 28th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces. He also served as the commander of the Turkish Land Forces. Özel is only the second in this position not to have NATO ex ...
, had authorised the operation approximately 90 minutes before the first strike.Genelkurmay BaÅŸkanı Necdet Özel, Roboski'ye onayı evinden vermiÅŸ!
''T24''. 7 January 2014.
In January 2012 the pro-Kurdish
Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party (, , BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter party for its alleged conne ...
(BDP) filed a lawsuit against the Turkish government at the
International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
(ICC). In December 2013 the ICC ruled it won't accept the lawsuit, since Turkey has not signed the
Rome Statute The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...
.


Regarding civilians and families of the deceased

Five persons were arrested for attempting to murder Uludere district governor Naif Yavuz on 9 January 2012. On January 16, 2012, survivors Davut, Servet and Hacı Encü were tried on passport law abuse, illegal border-crossing and smuggling charges.
''Bianet''. 16 January 2012.
On June 28, 2012, six months after the airstrike, members and relatives of the deceased who intended to protest at the site of the deaths were subjected to police violence and were dispersed by pressurised water cannons.
''Bianet'' 28 June 2012.
On 25 December 2012, four days before the anniversary of the airstrike, the police detained 19 individuals in and around Sirnak.Ekin Karaca, Police Detains 19 in Sirnak, Days Before Massacre Anniversary
, ''Bianet''. 25 December 2012.
Among the relatives of the deceased,
Ferhat Encü Ferhat Encü (born 5 August 1985) is a Kurds, Kurdish politician and former member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Turkish Parliament in the Şırnak Province. Encü is well known for a speech that he gave on the floor of the Parliament ...
, who lost 11 relatives in the airstrike, has been subject to continuous harassment by the police, reportedly being taken into custody four times on the same charge.Ayça Söylemez. Roboski Victims’ Relative Seeks Compensation After Four Detentions
, ''Bianet''. 24 July 2012.
He later became a member of parliament for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) but was dismissed and jailed for 10 months following a speech in parliament in which he condemned the Roboski airstrike. Encü was prosecuted and sentenced for terrorist propaganda was released after 10 months.


See also

*
Turkish war crimes Since the foundation of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey, its Turkish Armed Forces, official armed and Paramilitary, paramilitary forces have committed numerous violations of international criminal law (including war crimes, crimes against humanity ...
*
Human rights in Turkey Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over Legal system of the Republic of Turkey, domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, Constitution. ...


References

{{coord missing, Iraq 2011 in Iraqi Kurdistan 21st-century mass murder in Turkey 2011 airstrikes Massacres in 2011 History of Şırnak Province Massacres in Turkish Kurdistan Attacks in Turkey in 2011 Attacks in Iraq in 2011 Massacres committed by Turkey Massacres of Kurds December 2011 in Turkey December 2011 crimes in Asia Turkish war crimes Airstrikes conducted by Turkey 2011 murders in Turkey Persecution of Kurds in Turkey Iraq–Turkey border