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Minister of National Defense Nurettin Canikli has responded to parliamentary inquiry submitted by Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu about the mules killed by army staff in 2015 in Uludere to be responded by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım: “We don’t have any document or information about this matter”.

Committee of Monitoring Animal Rights (HAKİM) coordinator Burak Özgüner denounced the official response, which left the questions in the inquiry unanswered.

“There is an incident of killing innocent mules and no result has been achieved for over two years. We’ve declared our conscientious objection in protest of these massacres and the impunity.

“It is not even known whether an investigation was launched into the soldiers who need to punished. The state is obliged to give these answers to the citizens. Have the public and MPs kept waited for eight months for this statement that is actually not a response?

“This response and impunity once again proved that Turkey is not a rule of law”.

Investigation into the soldiers wasn’t permitted

59 mules along with 34 people were massacred in Turkey’s southeastern Roboski village in Uludere, Şırnak on December 28, 2011. On March 23, 2015, soldiers fired mules, killing eight and wounding 20.

The HAKİM had lodged a complaint into the incident for the soldiers and those who gave the order to be determined and punished. Uludere Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued decision of non-jurisdiction and sent the file to the military prosecutor’s office.

In March 2017, Şırnak Governorship ruled that no permission be granted for an investigation to be launched into the public servants, and the animal rights defenders objected to this decision. (ÇT/TK)