On December 29, 2011 in southeastern Turkey several Turkish Airforce F-16s bombed a convoy of Turkish Kurds on mules who were engaged in border trade, apparently mistaking them for Kurdish rebels. Thirty-four were killed; the average age of the victims was twenty.
While the Uludere (Roboski) bombing is still in the news headlines today, interest has been focused on the government's silence and the ongoing investigation, and the human side of the tragedy has been neglected.
However, last week poet and author Bejan Matur visited the region and posted her impressions on her Twitter account [tr], in both her poetic prose and photos.
A mother at her son's grave.
@bejanmatur: bugün geldim roboskiye ve gidemedim. yaslı kızkardeşlerin sesleri bırakmadı beni…
@bejanmatur: roboskide gece;sınıra düşen top sesleri, F-16 ucusşları ve bütün gün mezarlıkta ağıt yakan kadınların anlattığı ölü oğullar. ahh yeter mi?
At her brother's grave.
@bejanmatur: o kadar uzaktık birbirimizden. o kadar yalnız kendimizle…
@bejanmatur: Tum bunlar olurken butun gece ve gun roboskide top sesleri dinmedi. helikopterler, karsi tepelerden yukselen dumanlar arasinda yasanan hayat
His look…
@bejanmatur: ‘Aile ici siddet nasil korkuncsa bizim cocuklarimiz da bu seslerle buyuyor’ diyor biri roboskideki top seslerini kastederek.
@bejanmatur: Olumden duyduklari aciyi azaltacak tek sey sorumlularin cezalandirilmasi cunku!
To live and to die at Roboski.
As one of Bejan's poems says:
Beklemeyi bilen kan,
Taş olmayı da bilir.
Dünyada olmak acıdır. Öğrendim.
Knows how to be a stone.
Being on earth is pain itself. I've learned.
Bejan Matur was born in 1968 in an Alevi Kurdish family in the city of Marash in southeast Turkey. As well as being a poet she is a newspaper columnist and runs a cultural foundation in Diyarbakır.
All photos courtesy of Bejan Matur.
2 comments
turkey uses usa’s predators , napalm and chemical bombs to kill kurd people easily.if usa give predators combined with weapons,then turk goverment will kill kurds three times before.turk trops and polices kill 10-15 kurds every day.every week about 100-150 kurd literates are been prisoned without any justice.today the total of prisoned kurd is about 85000.some of them are prisoned about 4-5 years without taken to court.please , the west people see the kurd reality and hear the voice of kurd crime! thank you.