Peace activist and conscientious objector Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, who settled in Roboski village to stand with families after 2011’s massacre, was arrested and jailed in Turkey’s eastern province of Şırnak.
Yaylalı had been detained and then released at anniversary of the Roboski massacre in 2016. However, a Şırnak court has ruled his arrest upon an appeal by prosecutor’s office against his release. This time Yaylalı was jailed for allegedly “insulting the President”, “inciting people to disobey the laws” and “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization” and sent to Şırnak T Type Closed Prison.
On the 28 December 2011, 34 Turkish Kurds from the southeastern Turkish village of Roboski, in the district of Uludere, were killed by Turkish F-16 fighter jets as they crossed the border from Iraq into Turkey. Nineteen of those killed were children, the youngest just twelve. A drone initially spotted the villagers as they returned with donkeys packed with cigarettes and petrol. Turkish officials gave orders to bomb the target; they had mistakenly identified the civilian group as militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
April 23, 2017
