23 January 2017•Update: 23 January 2017
By Selahattin Erol
MARDIN, Turkey
Victims of a PKK massacre committed 30 years ago were commemorated in Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province on Monday.
Officials and locals gathered at the Efeler Primary School to remember the Jan. 1987 PKK attack that killed 10 people, including seven children and one woman, and also injured six others in a field in the Midyat district of Turkey’s Mardin province.
Speaking in Kurdish at the ceremony, Emine Kacay, 58, who lost four children in the attack, said: “Bloody-minded terrorists slaughtered my children. It is not easy to forget this pain.”
Midyat Governor Huseyin Tekin said that the terrorist PKK was trying to scare the public by carrying out massacres.
“If need be, our soldiers, policemen, village guards as well as governors are ready to be martyred. Nobody forget that,” said Tekin.
He also said, “What they call ‘death’ is for us is martyrdom, the highest position.”
Mehmet Sirin Akcay, one of the martyrs’ relatives, said that the terror organization will not reach its goals and that they are ready to be martyrs to Turkey.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU, resumed its armed campaign in July 2015 and since has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,100 security personnel and civilians, including women and children.
