Turkish PM meets families of Uludere massacre victims at fast-breaking dinner

ŞIRNAK - Anadolu Agency

The opening ceremony of the Şerafettin Elçi airport was followed by an iftar dinner organized on the apron of the facility during which the Turkish PM met with the relatives of the Uludere massacre victims. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has met with families of the Uludere massacre victims during a fast-breaking dinner, after the opening ceremony of the Şerafettin Elçi airport in the southeastern province of Şırnak on July 26.

Six relatives of the villagers who lost their lives in the air strike attended the fast-breaking dinner, organized on the apron of the new airport.

Relatives of the victims told reporters that the meeting lasted just over an hour. "We were satisfied with the meeting. Hopefully the prime minister can solve the problem. We did not talk about compensation, we only requested that the perpetrators be found," Zeki Tosun, who lost his son during the attack, told reporters.

The relatives, who at first declared that they would not attend the iftar, were reportedly convinced to meet Erdoğan by Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

The government is widely criticized for the approval of a report drafted by a Parliament sub-commission that cleared the army for the death of 34 civilian villagers in an air strike on Dec. 28, 2011, near the Turkish-Iraqi border in the Uludere district of Şırnak. The villagers were allegedly mistaken for outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants as they smuggled goods from northern Iraq into Turkey.

The parliamentary report stated that there were no intentional actions leading up to the incident and pointed to a "lack of coordination" between the military and the civilian administrations.

The families, who are asking a formal apology and compensation for the attack, were outraged by the report, and their lawyers threatened to carry the case to the European Court of Human Rights.