Turkey: Poetic Commemoration of Uludere Airstrike Victims · Global Voices
Stratos Moraitis

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!
As one of Bejan's poems says:
To live and to die at Roboski.
Beklemeyi bilen kan,
Taş olmayı da bilir.
Dünyada olmak acıdır. Öğrendim.
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.