ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The dead bodies of five members of two Duhok families who were killed in Turkey’s Kurdish province of Mardin on Thursday were buried in their hometowns in Duhok province on Friday. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has assured their relatives that the perpetrators will be held accountable.
Five people from two Duhok families visited the Kurdish province of Mardin in southeast Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) on Wednesday. CCTV footage, published by Turkish media, shows that a vehicle was following the two families before they were all shot dead on a highway.
One of the families, consisting of two people, visited Turkey for medical treatment while the other three people wanted to visit relatives in the country, Rudaw has learnt.
Some of the victims died at the incident scene while others succumbed to injuries at the hospital.
Haji Abdullah Salih, his wife Chiman Shahin, and his daughter Handren as well as Walida Haydar and Mala Ahmed Jalaladin were returned to Duhok province and laid to rest there on Friday.
The incident took place in the early hours of Thursday. Turkish security forces arrested six suspects but later released two. The motives behind the incident remain unclear.
Turkish media has published footage, recorded by CCTV and thermal cameras, purportedly showing how the perpetrators monitored the two families and killed them.
Mohammed Rashid is the relative of one of the victims. He told Rudaw on Friday that Turkish authorities were initially not serious in the investigations but “after seeing that it is being taken seriously by the media and the [Kurdish] government they became faster [in the investigation].”
President Barzani spoke on the phone on Friday with both families, “ensuring them that the relevant authorities in Turkey are investigating it and they will continue until the criminals are referred to the court and punished,” according to a statement from his office.
Hemin Mirany, chief of staff of Kurdistan Regional Government’s interior ministry, told Rudaw on Friday that they had “invited” Mehmet Mevlut Yakut, Turkish consul general to Erbil, and handed him a complaint letter regarding the deadly shooting incident.
Over 60 Turkish NGOs, unions, associations and officials in Mardin on Friday condemned the killing of the five Kurds in a joint statement.
This is not the first time that the residents of Kurdistan Region are being attacked in Turkey.
A Kurdish family from Erbil was attacked in Mersin province in May 2021 while holidaying in Turkey. The family claimed that they were assaulted by nationalist Turks for their ethnic identity. No one was jailed over the incident.
