PKK massacre: 13 dead villagers reduced to 60 kilos of flesh
On May 12, the PKK, which Turkey, the United States and European Union consider to be a terrorist organization, detonated a truck loaded with 15 tons of explosives in Dürümlü, a small town outside Diyarbakır. The explosion left a crater 20 meters wide and 5 meters deep. While authorities initially confirmed four deaths and 23 injured, it became clear that 13 civilians were missing. As crime scene investigators collected human remains, the relatives of the missing villagers spent hours watching them work. In the end, the coroner's office determined that the tissue samples would have to be analyzed in order to shed light on what happened to the missing villagers.Over the next days, the coroner's office analyzed approximately 60 kilograms of remains collected at the blast site. It became clear that there was nothing left of the 13 villagers, who had been reduced to 60 kilograms of dead tissue. Upon identifying the victims, their remains – approximately 5 kilograms per person – were placed in 13 identical coffins to be buried on Tuesday.
Issuing a written statement after the deadly blast, the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack and blamed the victims for the bloodshed. The dead villagers, according to the PKK, were "local collaborators." The militants driving the truck loaded with explosives, they said, were "friends under orders." The deadly explosion, unsurprisingly, was described as "the grave event." Villagers blowing themselves up – life is full of surprises, indeed.
To be clear, the explosion in Dürümlü was not the PKK's first attack on civilians. It will not be the last, either. As such, it is hardly surprising to see the true face of a terrorist organization that has the blood of some 50,000 people, mostly civilians, on its hands.
A statement from Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who leads the PKK's political wing in Turkey, however, was extremely shocking. "In such cases, those responsible must apologize," he said. Such cases? Really? A self-proclaimed politician can downplay an inhumane act of violence to make it look like the terrorists stepped on somebody's foot is unacceptable.
To make matters worse, the European Union and United States, among others, continue to assist the PKK's Syrian franchise, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which expands its territory under the pretext of fighting DAESH. U.S. President Barack Obama's administration does not even conceal its alliance with these terrorists anymore. Meanwhile, the European Union allows the PYD and PKK, which was behind recent attacks on civilians in Turkey, to raise money and recruit new members by proxy through nongovernmental organizations. People like Demirtaş, who denies ties to the PKK in front of international audiences, have been able to participate in fundraising activities for the organization in Germany and elsewhere. By failing to take a clear stance against terrorism, they betray universal values on which Western democracies thrive. Having suffered terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, Europeans still fail to understand that what goes around eventually comes around.
The Turkish people are currently waiting to see if European leaders, who had no problem advocating the rights of PKK snipers during counter-terror operations just months ago, have anything to say to the PKK and the HDP about the Dürümlü massacre.
Issuing a written statement after the deadly blast, the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack and blamed the victims for the bloodshed. The dead villagers, according to the PKK, were "local collaborators." The militants driving the truck loaded with explosives, they said, were "friends under orders." The deadly explosion, unsurprisingly, was described as "the grave event." Villagers blowing themselves up – life is full of surprises, indeed.
To be clear, the explosion in Dürümlü was not the PKK's first attack on civilians. It will not be the last, either. As such, it is hardly surprising to see the true face of a terrorist organization that has the blood of some 50,000 people, mostly civilians, on its hands.
A statement from Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who leads the PKK's political wing in Turkey, however, was extremely shocking. "In such cases, those responsible must apologize," he said. Such cases? Really? A self-proclaimed politician can downplay an inhumane act of violence to make it look like the terrorists stepped on somebody's foot is unacceptable.
To make matters worse, the European Union and United States, among others, continue to assist the PKK's Syrian franchise, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which expands its territory under the pretext of fighting DAESH. U.S. President Barack Obama's administration does not even conceal its alliance with these terrorists anymore. Meanwhile, the European Union allows the PYD and PKK, which was behind recent attacks on civilians in Turkey, to raise money and recruit new members by proxy through nongovernmental organizations. People like Demirtaş, who denies ties to the PKK in front of international audiences, have been able to participate in fundraising activities for the organization in Germany and elsewhere. By failing to take a clear stance against terrorism, they betray universal values on which Western democracies thrive. Having suffered terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, Europeans still fail to understand that what goes around eventually comes around.
The Turkish people are currently waiting to see if European leaders, who had no problem advocating the rights of PKK snipers during counter-terror operations just months ago, have anything to say to the PKK and the HDP about the Dürümlü massacre.