Even America backtracked, but Turkey’s pro-PKK opposition won’t back down

Istanbul Deputy Hüda Kaya, who is a bigger supporter of the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) than the HDP itself, says, “The truth cannot be hidden regardless of the price that will be paid,” and “The truth has always been and will be the sole measurement.”

What he calls the truth is the belief that the incident in Gara is the same as the Roboski airstrike. In other words, he is claiming that these citizens fell martyr during an air bombardment of the Turkish Air Forces (TAF), and that a cock and bull story was concocted to cover up the truth.

When one is easily fooled by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party's (PKK), grand statements such as “The truth will be only judge” stick out like a sore thumb.

Yet, all evidence associated with this savage massacre did nothing other than confirm National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar’s statement made Sunday night. In other words, if Kaya thinks there is an audience ready to believe his story, he might have trouble convincing even them this time.

In his statement, Minister Akar provides the following information:

“In preliminary investigations, it has been determined that one of our innocent and unarmed citizens were martyred with a shot to the shoulder, and the other 12 with shots to the head.”

(There is no mention of “civilian” in the statement. They are referred to as innocent and unarmed citizens. Civilian was used by the television channels that broadcast on this incident. How did this slip the notice of the parties that asked Parliament the question, “Why did you say civilian”?)

If the martyrs’ bodies were unable to be found and transported back to Turkey, conspiracy theories like Kaya’s were ready in spades.

However, as everyone knows, the corpses were first brought to Malatya. They underwent an autopsy at the Forensic Medical Institute and were identified by the families. This was then followed by the funeral ceremonies.

Let us now look at all the details individually:

1- When providing information about the autopsies performed at the Malatya Forensic Medicine Institute, Malatya Governor Aydın Baruş made the following statement:

“Operations to identify our three citizens who were martyred in the treacherous attack are ongoing. According to the results of the autopsies performed at the Malatya Forensic Medicine Institute by the Public Prosecutor and forensic experts, it has been determined that our citizens were shot at close range, with 12 taking bullets to the head, and one to the chest.”

2- Continuing the same statement, the Malatya Governor provided the following additional information:

“Our martyrs’ families are also traveling to our province, where the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office will ask them to identify their children’s bodies.”

As can be gleaned from this statement, the martyrs’ bodies were identified individually by their families. In addition, the families’ testimony confirmed that the hostages died not due to an air bombardment but by being shot execution style by PKK terrorists in the cave that they supposedly use as a prison.

4- If there are those who still have their doubts, they can refer to the statements made by Öztürk Türkdoğan, the president of the Human Rights Association (İHD), which is known for its affiliation with the HDP.

İHD President Türkdoğan, who spoke to BBC Turkish, says one of the families that identified the bodies reported to them that they saw a bullet wound in their son’s head.

Clearly, even the Americans have had to rely on the solid evidence in relation to this savagery.

If that was not the case, then they would not have had to change their initial “conditional” statement: “If reports of the death of Turkish civilians at the hands of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization, are confirmed, we condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”

It is obvious that Kaya embraced the PKK statement published on Firat News Agency (ANF) immediately after the event that the hostages died as a result of Turkey’s air raids, saying, “The truth is the sole measurement”; while the Americans made such a statement because they were puzzled, thinking, “Which ally is telling the truth? The PKK? Turkey?”

Everybody now knows of a place called Gara in Iraq, but the activity in that area is not breaking news.

It was about two-and-a-half or three years ago when I first heard the name “Gara” from a top-level official closely following the area. I have never forgotten it since then because the information that person relayed was confidential.

My source, who mentioned the PKK’s “specific” positioning in that area, had also made certain statements about why the Americans chose this area for their meetings with the PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who spoke yesterday at the Trabzon Provincial Congress said, “Gara was a critical, problematic area, and Gara fell; by God’s grace, it is over.”

The news that Gara fell becomes extra significant with this anecdote now, does it not?