KEBABBLE Massacre leaves Turkey searching for answers
By Fazile Zahir
FETHIYE - Turkey is still searching for answers after the massacre this month
of 44 people at a Kurdish wedding party, with the carnage being blamed
alternately on a blood feud or a government program to arm militias set up to
help combat Kurdish separatists in the area.
Cemil Celebi, the headman of Bilge, a small village in Mardin province near the
Syrian border, had called for people from the surrounding area to gather on May
4 and celebrate his daughter's wedding. As is the custom in conservative Kurd
villages, the women and children gathered in one room and the men in another.
Prayers were being led by the village imam when masked gunmen
appeared at the doors and windows and opened fire on those inside with
semi-automatic rifles.
The slaughter was indiscriminate, six children, 16 women - three of whom were
pregnant - and 22 men were killed, while six others were injured. Almost
everyone at the party was killed, including the bride, the groom and the imam
who was presiding over the ceremony. Only one boy who hid beneath his brother's
body and a young woman who hid beneath a bed survived unhurt.
In the days since, the Turkish media have been saturated with reports as people
attempt to find an explanation for the bloodbath; many have been offered, but
there are no definitive conclusions.
The eight people arrested and charged in connection with the murders, which
include a 12-year-old boy, have simply said that they had to murder everyone so
there would be no reprisals. They were all were all members of state-backed
"Village Guard" units established to fight Kurdish separatism in Turkey's
southeast, a position which gives them certain powers and government-issued
weapons.
The fact that the some of their surnames are the same as those of the wedding
party led to speculation that the attack was led by some of Celebi's cousins
who had wanted his daughter to marry into their family. People are often killed
in rural Turkey over "blood-for-blood" vendettas passed from generations over
land disputes, grazing rights or matters of family honor.
According to Turkish television reports, there was an argument between the
families in the 1990s that led to the death of one person, and Celebi's snub of
the cousins' wedding proposal provoked them in the attack.
Others say the family feud was over land and point to the fact that women and
children were slaughtered - under the normal "rules" of a blood feud, only men
can be killed. Whatever the true reason, the attackers were not acting on
impulse.
The gunmen had planted a young cousin with the guests who sent them a text
message telling them when to come before he slipped away from the house. The
attackers were all wearing ski masks and had left their government-issued guns
at home. It is assumed they did this so investigators would think the outlawed
terrorist organization the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) was responsible.
Unfortunately for them, Cemil Celebi was able to name those he recognized to
the police before he died.
Reported all over the world in the English-language press as a "massacre by
pro-government militia", government officials have been quick to distance
themselves from the actions of the men.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay told a press conference, "This can be understood
as a blood feud between two families."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also quick to pin the blame on tribal
customs, adding, "No kind of tradition can justify this killing, no conscience
can justify this kind of pain."
President Abdullah Gul, not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to portray
Kurds as retrogressive, said, "Such primitive cruelty that opens deep cuts in
our conscience is inexplicable. Everybody should think seriously about
tradition, blood feuds and animosity standing before human life."
But not all observers accept the government's blame on feuds and tradition.
They are raising serious questions about the effects of the village guard
scheme.
There are about 57,000 village guards throughout Turkey's southeast, part of a
policy established in 1985 to protect villages against attacks from PKK
guerrillas seeking an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. The
guards receive small arms from the government as well as wages and health
benefits.
But since the militias were established, over 5,000 of the guards have been
reportedly involved in land grabs, smuggling and violence. It appears that many
of them abuse their positions and are happy to bully any unfortunate villagers
who cross their path.
This, combined with the steady low-level war of attrition that has been fought
in the Mardin area for decades, has desensitized some of its inhabitants to
extreme violence, and the wedding massacre is the result, say some observers.
For those keen to dismiss the Kurds as "non-Turkish", it is a pessimistic
interpretation that lays blame squarely at the feet of the state and the army's
flawed policies in dealing with ethnic problems.
Criticism leveled at the village guard system seems to be borne out by previous
incidents.
Only last June, 10 people were shot in the Mediterranean province of Adana when
a gunman fired into a crowd. There the shooter was also a member of the local
village guards, although on this occasion he did use the gun given to him by
the Turkish army.
Senior government ministers have dodged questions relating to the village guard
system and its effects, but they cannot avoid them forever. But it's not enough
to simply shrug and say that these things happen among Kurds. One thing that is
clear is that the survivors of the Bilge attack have a difficult road ahead of
them, as justice, like a massacre, doesn't just happen.
Fazile Zahir is of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She
moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full time since then.
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