Diyarbakır (Amed) Bar Association in Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey has become the target of pro-government newspapers and social media users after it released a statement on the killing of nine civilians in Iraq’s Zakho (Zaxo) district.
“Civilians, including children, were killed in Zakho because of the TSK’s [Turkish Armed Forces] bombardment,” Diyarbakır Bar Association said in the statement on Wednesday.
“Just like in Roboski, human rights are disregarded when it comes to Kurds,” the statement reads, referring to the Turkish army’s killing of 34 Kurdish villagers, including 19 children, in the Roboski village of the Kurdish majority city of Şırnak (Şırnex) in 2011.
The bar offers its condolences to the families of those who were killed in the attack in Iraqi Kurdistan saying, “The association will file a criminal complaint and follow the judicial process in order for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.”
However, pro-government and nationalist figures are now calling for an investigation to be launched into the bar, describing the bar’s statement as “terror propaganda”.
While some pro-government pundits called for the bar to be shut down, pro-government news outlets Yeni Şafak and aHaber called the bar “PKK’s advocate.”
Following thousands of insulting and accusatory tweets, and an intense smear campaign, the bar released another statement saying that it will not bow down to threats.
The Diyarbakır Bar Association has defended the superiority of law since its foundation, it said on Thursday. “It will continue the struggle for rights, law and justice regardless of the price it may pay.”
“The association will continue to defend peace against war and violence,” it added.
