The AKP-led Turkish state carried out a great massacre in the Roboskî village of Şırnak’s Uludere district on December 28, 2011. 34 Kurds, 20 of them children under 18, were murdered by Turkish fighter jets. The people of the region started to join the guerrilla in higher numbers after the massacre, and one of them is Andok, the brother of Cihan who was among the murdered.

Andok Cihan Roboskî joined the ranks of the guerrilla in 2014 and says that he doesn’t have the perspective of personal misfortune, but sees the world from the greater window of the Kurdish people.

HPG guerrilla Andok Cihan Roboskî pointed out that the state wanted to establish authority through the Roboskî Massacre and continued: “The source of income in Roboskî is border trade. In the 2011 general elections, state parties received no votes and they decided to give this message in blood to punish the Kurdish people.”

Andok stressed that the target of the Roboskî Massacre was not just the residents of Roboskî and said: “It was a massacre against all Kurdish people. I was there myself. The villagers and our relatives know very well what the state intended, what they wanted to do and why they carried out such a massacre. Their claim that they received intelligence that there were PKK members there was just a lie. They wanted to send a message to the Kurdish people, intimidate the Roboskî area and provoke the people against the PKK. We did not react like they wanted. The awareness that the PKK has created in the people transcends many things.”

Andok joined the guerrilla in 2014: “This is the way to stand against fascism, but of course losing my brother Cihan did give me more drive.”