The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) dubbed Turkey’s killing of civilians in Iraq’s Zakho (Zaxo) district the “Second Roboski,” referring to a past massacre committed by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
The Turkish government is responsible for the massacre both politically and legally, HDP said in the written statement.
The Zakho massacre will go down in history as the second Roboski when 34 Kurdish villagers, 19 of them children, died after being bombed by Turkish warplanes near the Kurdish majority city of Şırnak (Şırnex) in 2011, the statement reads.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has killed civilians in Iraqi Kurdistan especially in Sinjar and Makhmur in the past according to the reports of the international NGO Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), it added.
It also cited a report prepared by the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan Bureau, which said that at least 112 people were killed and scores of others were wounded in multiple military air strikes carried out by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in mainly these two areas since 2015.
Turkey’s attack is a war crime, a crime against humanity, and a violation of the territorial integrity of another country, it read. “Turkey is also a direct party to international conventions that prohibit these crimes.”
The perpetrators should be tried and the cross-border military operations should be stopped, it added.
The party also asked the parliament speaker to call for an emergency session to change the Turkish cross-border bill which gives a mandate to the Turkish military to conduct cross border military operations into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Nine civilians including three children were killed and over 20 were wounded in targeted Turkish shelling on Wednesday. A baby was among those killed.