The Turkish military stormed the village of Roboski in the Uludere district of Şırnak province and stormed several houses. At least three residents, Abdullah Encü, Necmi Tosun and Zeki Tosun, were taken into custody and taken to the local gendarmerie station. The soldiers did not give any details about the reasons for the detentions.

The Kurdish village of Roboski, whose Turkish name is "Ortasu", is located in the south-east of Şırnak on the border with Iraq. On December 28, 2011, the village witnessed a massacre by the Turkish F-16 fighter jets bombing a caravan of border traders who were on their way back to their village from southern Kurdistan with their mules, a few canisters of diesel fuel, tea and sugar. 34 of them, including 19 minors, were killed. 24 of the victims belonged to the Encü family.

At the time, 38 villagers between the ages of 13 and 38 were walking along the narrow paths of the mountainous area in the Turkish-Iraqi border region when the bombing began at 9:37 pm and ended at 10:24 pm. Only four of them survived. The Turkish General Staff justified the attack by claiming that the group had been mistaken for "terrorists", which is why the decision was made to bomb them. A lie, as it later turned out.

The massacre opened a collective wound in Kurdistan and was met with anger and protest worldwide. But to this day, no legal clarification has been made and no one in Turkey has ever been held accountable for this massacre. The Turkish government under then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not issued an official apology to the bereaved. The general staff of the Turkish armed forces justified the attack by saying that those killed were traveling on routes that were also used by the PKK guerrillas. Erdogan even thanked his chief of staff and the Turkish armed forces.

On the other hand, the residents of Roboski, many of whom are relatives of those murdered, have been under the avenging sword of Damocles of the Turkish justice system for years - and have had to endure harassment such as charges for memorial events, long prison sentences for protests or arbitrary arrests because of their tireless fight for justice. As in the case of Zeki Tosun, who was detained today and lost his 23-year-old son Mehmed Ali Tosun in the 2011 massacre. A large memorial service for the victims is planned for next Friday to mark the twelfth anniversary of the Roboski massacre. According to lawyers, it is likely that today's detentions are connected to the event.