New investigation into Roboski massacre

Click to read the article in Turkish

Today marks the ninth year since 34 citizens, including children, were killed in Roboski in Turkey's southeastern province of Şırnak.

The judicial process that ensued the massacre has ended in impunity after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rejected the application.

However, after the attorneys of the families from Roboski made a new application in June 2019, a new investigation file has been opened. But, no proceedings have yet been undertaken as part of this file.

Attorney Neşat Giresun has spoken to bianet about this recent investigation and the judicial process:

"As new evidence came up amid the developments that unfolded after the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, we made an application to the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and requested that an investigation be launched again. There is currently an open investigation file.

"One of these developments was the following statement by the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak:

"'Normalization of relations with the state of Russia, being neighbors in the region for so many years, the processes so far... I think that this issue with Uludere, this 'plane' issue of November 24 will be reviewed again. Our citizens already ask, 'What abnormalities are there?.'

"The second development was about the judges who signed the decision of non-prosecution given by the Military Prosecutor's Office of the General Staff and the rejection of our appeal against this decision.

"The former military prosecutor who handed down the decision of non-prosecution has been removed from office. Except for the court board member who expressed a dissenting opinion, the other two members of the Air Force's Military Court have also been dismissed.

"We have requested that a new investigation be launched by considering these developments. The reason why we applied to the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office was that the soldiers who were on duty in the operation were commissioned in Diyarbakır.

"However, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office gave a decision of non-jurisdiction and sent the file to the Uludere Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. No proceedings have yet been undertaken as part of the application that we made in June 2019."

What happened?

CLICK - 9 years of impunity in Roboski

The Military Prosecutor's Office of the General Staff gave a decision of "no ground for prosecution (lawsuit)" of the Roboski massacre.

After the appeals of Roboski families against the decision of non-prosecution given by the General Staff's Military Prosecutor's Office were rejected, they applied to the Constitutional Court on July 18, 2014.

On February 26, 2016, the supreme court rejected the application of the families who were themselves the victims of the Roboski massacre.

Without reviewing the file, the Constitutional Court gave this decision of rejection on the sole ground of the two-day delay of Nuşirevan Elçi, the attorney of only three applicants, to submit his warrant of attorney.

281 victims of the Roboski massacre appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on August 23, 2016, saying that their rights, especially their right to life, had been violated by the incident.

In its judgement dated May 17, 2018, the ECtHR found the application "inadmissible" by citing the Constitutional Court's rejection of the families' application because "the attorneys sent the documents two days late."

The judgement of "inadmissibility" was based on not a technical deficiency in the application to the European Court of Human Rights, but a deficiency in the application to Turkey's Constitutional Court.

Families' attorneys have announced that, in addition to a new investigation, they will also apply to the UN Human Rights Committee. (AS/SD)