Relatives of the Roboski massacre, in which Turkish warplanes murdered 34 Kurdish civilians at the border in Uludere district of Şırnak on 28 December 2011, have started to move to the Shirit high pasture in the face of the increasing repression of the Turkish soldiers and the military activity around the village.

A villager, Hüseyin Encü, who lost his brother Cihan Encü in the massacre committed by Turkish warplanes, protested the situation, saying “The state massacred us in our own lands. While we tried to survive in these lands, we see that they are preparing for new massacres”.

On 28 December 2011, Turkish army launched airstrikes on a crowded group of Kurdish civilians involved in border trade, killing 34 civilians, mostly children, in Roboski village in Uludere district of Şırnak. The villagers continue to face an increasing attack and intervention by Turkish soldiers who have most recently killed the eight mules the villagers were using in border trade to earn their lives.

Hundreds of villagers on their way to migrate to South Kurdistan were stopped by Turkish soldiers at the Salatalık Pınarı area, where the mules were killed, yesterday and prevented from crossing the border in allegation that it is a “forbidden zone”. The villagers held a sit-down action in the area and continued their action by setting up tents as the night fell. The villagers sent the elderly and the children back to village and continued their tent action, insisting on not leaving the area.

Hüseyin Encü, who is also participating the tent action against the soldiers said that the repression in the village makes it difficult for the villagers to continue their life there, adding that the state is killing the people and not bringing the perpetrators to the justice, and to make matters worse, continues to kill the animals of the villagers as well as plundering their cultivated lands. Encü said the village is occupied from all four parts and that they do not understand what is the problem of the state with the villagers of Roboski.

Encü said the cross-border trade is vital for the villages to earn their lives as there is no other means for them and asked “Did the state establish a factory in the area and we refused to work?”

Another villager, Behçet Kaya, who was put into prison for 8 months on the allegation that he insulted the Uludere governor during his visit to the village, said the state authorities should listen to the villagers about why they are doomed to do border trade rather than attacking on them only because of their work.

Kaya said it is the same power who forces them to do border trade without creating other job opportunities in the region that is massacring the people and the animals. He called on the authorities to keep their hands off Roboski. Kaya said they will continue their resistance at the border line as long as the repression of the soldiers continues.