Artists delegation to visit Roboski

Artists delegation to visit Roboski

A second delegation of artists is goint to visit villagers in Roboski. On 28 December Turkish Armed Forces carried out air raids killing 35 civilians. The authorities are trying to cover up the massacre by saying that it was an "operational mistake" and talking of some compensation. Indeed so far the only action taken by the authorities has been to call the three survivors to the local gendarmerie post. The three men have been interrogated and they face charges of smuggling.

The second delegation of artists see, among others, Halil Ergün, Ahmet Soner, Pelin Batu and Kazým Öz. The visit is plan on 21 January.

The artists in a statement said that the purpose of the visit is to make sure that nobody will forget the Roboski massacre. As to the authorities, "we won't let them forget".

The full list of artists going to Roboski is as follow: Halil Ergün, Ahmet Soner, Pelin Batu, Kazým Öz, Aziz Çapkurt, Ömer Leventoðlu, Aydýn Orak, Bülent Gündüz, Özkan Küçük, Mutlu Þahin, Elif Ergezen, Haydar Gündüz, Ekrem Heydo, Alper Küçükdevlet, Yakup Tekintangaç, Ayça Damgacý, Haluk Ünal.

The artists pointed out that they might well be next in line in the government policy of arrests of harassment. After civil society organization, students, lawyers, politicians, journalists, Interior minister Ýdris Naim Þahin had said that "terrorism can be made and supported by art, literature, music" so indicating artists as a target of repression.