ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two young boys die in a recent Turkish air strikes in Roboski near the border with the Kurdistan Region, on the site of a deadly bombing that killed 34 members of the same family five years ago. Relatives described the death of the two boys as “a second Roboski massacre”. Vedat Encu, 16 was killed on the site of the deadly Roboski village late last month. He was denied burial in the same cemetery as the other 34 victims, his family said, as soldiers stopped the mourners from bringing the coffin into the cemetery. “Gendarme and Police came to the village warning us that we could not bury Vedat's body at the cemetery of the 34 persons because it will be considered terror propaganda, otherwise they would file charges against us,” Wali Encu, head of the Roboski Massacre Families Association, told Rudaw. Five other smugglers were wounded in the air strike. In December 2011 a Turkish air strike in Roboski village killed 34 Kurdish civilians who later were found out to be smugglers making a living by trading items on mule back between the Kurdistan Region and markets on the Turkish side of the border. The death of the latest two victims brings the total number of Roboski air strike victims to 36. Vedat’s body was buried in the main village cemetery to wreathes of flowers and prayers. Two days later his cousin, Yilmaz Encu, also died of injuries he sustained in the same incident. Relatives at the funeral said this was “the second Roboski massacre,” “They did not allow me to see my wounded son in the hospital,” Yilmaz's mother Zaynab Encu told journalists. Residents of the remote village of Roboski say their area has been turned into a military area where the army acts without permission of or consultation with the local authorities and acts as government. “The army issues decrees in place of the governor and mayor,” Wali Encu complained. “It does what it wants,” A Kurdish journalist told Rudaw that he was stopped by the Turkish army from visiting Roboski “under the pretext that the place was unstable and a body had been found,” Falak Encu, Vedat's aunt who also lost her son in the 2011 bombing sighed, “We mourn again, what is being done is a plot, they want us to leave Roboski.” Falak said that due to the war the villagers were unable to tend their farms and animals and the only source of income was therefore cross-border trade. “Vedat wanted to become a physician. To make money to buy Eid costumes, he used to visit the borders. When we went there to bring back his body, they set the area on fire to prevent us,” said grief-stricken Falak. The boys were apparently mistaken for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels as in the case of the 2011 strike, which the Turkish government called an “unintentional error,” “Without warning, smugglers are never fired on in any place in the world, even if they smuggle drugs,” Lawyer Mehmet Akin, member of Turkey's Lawyers Association told Rudaw. “They have to be warned first.”
