On December 8, Turkish police forces destroyed the Roboski monument in Rojava Park in Amed, which had been erected 4 years ago in memory of the victims of Roboski massacre where 34 civilians were killed by the bombardment of Turkish warplanes near Şırnak’s Roboski village on December 28, 2011. The monument was created by sculptor Suat Yakut and had 8 missile models, the sculpture of a women mourning for the victims, and the names of the 34 people massacred in Roboski.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak MP Ferhat Encü sent a message today on the tear down of the Roboski Monument from the Kandıra Prison he is currently held in.

Encü’s message regarding the destruction of the monument is as follows:

“In 1937, in Spain, during the Civil War, there are planes of death flying over the town of Guernica. Nazi Germany’s bombs massacre hundreds in the town. Picasso paints a mural depicting the tragedy, Guernica, named after the town.

A German general sees the mural and asks Picasso, ‘Did you do this?’ Picasso answers: ‘No, you did.’

I learned of this famous story in Guernica, Basque Country I visited right after the Roboski Massacre to talk about the massacre, during the meeting we had with the mayor of Guernica and the administrators of the association set up by victims’ families. Some of the fascist practices we’ve been subjected to lately do resemble this Picasso story.

The Roboski Monument put up in the Rojava Park by the Kayapınar Municipality in Diyarbakır was made by an esteemed artist. But the actual architects of this monument are the ones who carried out the massacre. This massacre was organized within the chain of command, by the top tier of the state, and it killed 34 people. Now the Kayapınar mayor appointed as a trustee by the government coup tore down the Roboski Monument with construction equipment.

The trustee taking down the Roboski Monument is a statement of will. This will gives itself away and admits guilt. This is brazenness and remorselessness.

The will that has been ruling the state since the first day of the incident has not changed, and acts in support of the massacre, taking on all the responsibility, since the first day. After the massacre, the then-Prime Minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thanked the Chief of General Staff for his sensibilities. This statement that almost looks for excuses for the massacre was also made by him: ‘The 40-people group is reminiscent of the weapons transported on mule back like in Gediktepe and Hantepe raids. People then complained that there was no intervention.’

Not one person was punished in the wake of this incident where 34 people, most of them children, were massacred. But the pressure on the Roboski village and the people of Roboski has gone up unbelievably. The many detentions I have gone through, my hostage situation now, my villagers being detained time after time, the martial law imposed on the village, the shut-down of Roboski Association and lastly, the tearing down of the Roboski Monument...

The trustee appointed to the Kayapınar Municipality displayed a behaviour that reflects his psychological guilt in this incident by removing the monument in question. It’s like he made the monument disappear so the massacre the government is responsible for won’t be remembered. But they must know that we know who the murderers are. And the Roboski Monument etched in peoples’ minds won’t disappear before the murderers apologize and take their punishment.”