HDP condemns Zakho attack, blames government

The bombing of a holiday resort in Northern Iraq by the Turkish Armed Forces is a crime against humanity; and the government is politically and legally responsible for this, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey said in a statement published on its web site. 

On Wednesday, fierce artillery killed at least nine and wounded 23 tourists near a riverside resort in Duhok, northern Iraq. One of the killed was a one year old baby, Iraqi health ministry said. 

“Bombing civilian settlements is a crime against humanity. This attack will go down in history as the second Roboski massacre,” HDP’s statement said. 

The Roboski massacre took place in 2011, near the Iraq-Turkey border, when the Turkish Air Force bombed and killed a group of 34 Kurdish civilians who had been involved in smuggling gasoline and cigarettes.

HDP said that at least 112 people, including children and women, were killed in the air strikes carried out by the AKP government against many cities in the region, especially Makhmur and Shingal, since 2015.

“The perpetrators and the masterminds of this incident must be prosecuted” the statement said.

HDP also called for an emergency meeting in the General Assembly to reevaluate the bill that gave permission to the government to carry out strikes outside Turkey.