Villagers in Uludere raid visible to naked eye: Turkish MP

ANKARA - Hurriyet Daily News

Commission members visited villages where the raid happened. DHA photo

Villagers can be seen with the “naked eye” in footage from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during a botched Turkish Armed Forces air raid that killed 34 villagers late last year, a Turkish deputy has said.

The Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Research Commission watched the footage in the company of experts and officials from the Armed Forces earlier today.

CHP MP Levent Gök, who is a member of the commission, said the villagers were easy to see with their mules could be spotted with the “naked eye.”

Another member of the commission, Refik Eryılmaz, said there was an interval of three to 3.5 hours between the spotting of the group of individuals and the initiation of the operation in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s Uludere district.

Eryılmaz also said the Armed Forces officials were still not certain on the identities of the villagers and were unsure if they were simple smugglers or were involved in terror-related activities.

The commission will soon prepare an official report on the matter.

The Dec. 28, 2011, massacre occurred after villagers, who had been smuggling goods from Iraq into Turkey, were mistaken for Kurdish militants.