DİHA - Dicle News Agency

NEWS DESK (DİHA) - People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has released its report on the massacre in Zergelê village located in Qandil region, where the airstrikes of Turkish air forces claimed the lives of 8 civilians and left dozens of others wounded in the early morning hours of August 1, 2015.

Based on observations at the scene and the testimonies of the eyewitnesses, the injured and the local and regional government officials, the report of the HDP confirmed that Zergelê village was a settlement where civilians live contrary to the claims of the Turkish authorities that it was a camp of HPG guerrillas and that the 8 people killed in the bombardment and dozens of others wounded were all civilians. HDP report said the bombardment carried out by Turkish jets on Zergelê village was a targeted attack on civilians and documented the destruction caused by the shelling.

The report also stressed that contrary to the allegations portraying the Qandil region to Turkish public opinion as a settlement only comprised of a PKK base, it actually is home to almost a hundred civilian settlements within many villages. “The population in the region peaks during summer as this is the time of the year favourable to agriculture”, said the report.

An investigation committee of HDP, composed of Urfa Parliamentarian Osman Baydemir, Siirt Parliamentarian Kadri Yıldırım, İstanbul Parliamentarian Hüda Kaya, HDP Vice President responsible for foreign relations Nazmi Gür, MYK member Hatice Altınışık and DBP Hewler representative Şilan Eminoğlu paid a visit to Zergelê village on 4-6 August and carried out research and investigation at the scene of the bombardments and in Hewlêr, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah. HDP Hewlêr representatives, Şilan Eminoğlu and Abit İke also accompanied the HDP committee during the visit.

The report, prepared by the Investigation Committee said in its opening that Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) Central Executive Committee instructed the committee for a fact-finding mission to clarify the discrepancy and to shed light on the true nature of the events and that due to that purpose the committee paid visits to the hospital to listen to the wounded to hear their first hand testimonies and visited the village of Zergelê to identify the damage caused by the airstrikes on site and to interview eyewitnesses of the airstrike.

HDP Committee also met representatives from Movement for Change, the Kurdish National Council and Tevgera Azad in Sulaymaniyah as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government’s President Masoud Barzani and Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani in Hewlêr to discuss the attack.

The committee first met the injured survivors of the attack in the hospital and also conducted eyewitness interviews at the village of Zergelê. The survivors of the attack with whom the HDP committee conducted face to face talks were all children, young, women and elderly villagers living in Zergelê. “The villagers here are civilians who make a living off agriculture and trade”, stressed the report.

Visit to village of Zergelê and findings

The village of Zergelê where the committee arrived on August 5th -located in the valley of Qandil region where a main highway and two rivers cut through – has been a civilian settlement for decades, said the report and added:

“Both during our interactions at the village of Zergelê and with regional representatives, many have expressed their dismay at the misinterpretation of this village as a military base. Our committee has also confirmed that the village of Zergelê is a residential area of 37 units including houses, a mosque, a school, local administration buildings, and tens of stables. The residential nature of this village has been documented by the numerous domestic and international news outlets and press agencies during our visit as well”.

Stages of airstrikes and eyewitnesses

The report said the committee has been informed by the testimonials of the survivors of the airstrikes at the village of Zergelê that:

1. combat air patrol had been thoroughly surveilling the area with drones as of two days before the airstrikes,

2. first airstrike started on August 1 at 4.00 am and at least two other airstrikes followed the initial one until 6.00 am concurrently while combat air patrol drones directed the attack.

Three consecutive attacks

The report said the Turkish jets conducted three consecutive attacks on the village, the first being carried out at 04.00, the second at around 04:50 when the villagers were trying to rescue the wounded person in the first attack and the third composed of four missiles hit approximately at 05.10 am while the villagers were trying to rescue the people trapped under the wreckage in the second attack.

The report said: “Our committee has confirmed that the airstrikes of approximately two hours long have unquestionably massacred eight unarmed civilians”.

Human tragedy after attack

“As a result of the attack on the morning of August 1st, 6 houses were destroyed and all the residential units in the village, including the mosque and the school, were damaged at the village of Zergelê”, said the report, adding that over a thousand children, elderly, women and young people still fear the possibility of attacks to come.

The report further communicated the views of those civilians who have survived the attack and who said that they all believe that the set of airstrikes were orchestrated deliberately to rid off the Qandil region of its civilian population in the villages.

The report also said that most of the sources, whom the committee members contacted, confirmed the existence of PKK bases in the Qandil region, however that they also expressed that no guerrillas take shelter in the villages and that their bases are far from civilian settlements. “Furthermore, other sources have confirmed that it is against the guerrilla’s codes to take shelter from or make contact with civilians. Consequently, the massacre of Zergelê is defined as an attack aimed that evacuating the civilians out of their villages in the Qandil region”, said the report.

Findings

The report said the committee has come to the following conclusions as a result of its interviews with the injured at the hospitals, villagers of Zergelê and local and regional government officials and representatives:

1. It has been confirmed that the bombarded village of Zergelê—contrary to the claims of Ankara of it being a PKK base—is a civilian settlement. Those who lost their lives due to the airstrikes were unarmed civilians.

2. Qandil is a vast region of approximately a hundred villages and many fields. All the local sources confirm that there are no and have never been any PKK bases within or near these civilian settlements.

3. The statement released by Turkish authorities claiming that the Kurdish Regional Government had been informed about the airstrikes does not reflect the truth. In fact, the Kurdish Regional Government was informed only after the attack.

4. The statement released by Ankara indicating that the Kurdish Regional Government authorities approve of the military operations in the region does not reflect the truth. On the contrary, the public officials we have met have openly expressed their concerns with and dismay at the airstrikes and its consequences.

5. The airstrikes and its concurrent consequences are not only against human rights but also clearly breach moral, humane codes. A civilian massacre has been orchestrated by crossing the borders of another country by 150 km and bombarding a village.

6. Although the responsibility of this attack lies with the Turkish government, the countries who have supplied Turkey with the necessary arms are not exempt from this responsibility either.

7. The airstrikes targeting the region has not only caused a civilian massacre but also caused massive forest fires devastating the fauna of the region and causing environmental destruction.

Conclusion

The report stressed in its conclusion that the political responsibility of the civilian massacre caused by the airstrikes of the Turkish Armed forces lies with the Turkish government.

“Our committee is hereby filing a criminal complaint against those who have ordered and executed the attacks, were a part of the chain of command and deliberately misinformed the public opinion about the airstrikes”, reported the committee members, adding that “The severity of the consequences of this cross-border air attack puts responsibility on the shoulders of the governments of the nations who have supplied the means of the massacre as well”.

The report called on the nations supplying arms to the Turkish government to ask for further guarantee that these arms will not be used on civilians and the AKP government to take into account the atrocious consequences of this attack and realize that military operations will not pose a solution to the question at hand.

The report of the HDP ended with stressing strong need for mutual cease fire to prevent new tragedies, war crimes and irreparable pain, adding that only dialogue and negotiations can bring solutions.

(nt)