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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Turkish slaughter sparks exodus
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ABOUT 100 villagers have fled their homes in southeast Turkey in fear of revenge attacks for the massacre of 44 people at a wedding in a feud between families.
Locals loaded furniture, appliances and clothing onto trucks parked outside their houses and left under the supervision of paramilitary police on Wednesday evening after what was the worst mass killing of civilians in modern Turkish history.
The attack, blamed on a feud between families over property and who should marry the bride, has ravaged Bilge village, which had a population of about 350 before Monday night's attack in the mainly Kurdish region.
Security sources said two more people have been arrested over the killings, raising the number of those in custody to 10. Those detained were members of a state-backed rural militia and used state-issued weapons in the attack, officials have said.
The involvement of "village guards" in the attack has revived pressure on the European Union-candidate country to rein in the heavily armed force, which is unlikely due to its importance as a source of income.
There are about 57,000 village guards in Turkey's southeast, part of a policy established in 1985 to protect villages against attacks from Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas seeking an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
The 12 families, or about 100 to 120 people, who left Bilge were believed to be related to those suspected of having carried out the Monday evening attack.
The sources declined to say where the villagers were heading for security reasons.
Security sources said 27 weapons, two of them unlicensed, had been seized from villagers to prevent revenge attacks.
Locals loaded furniture, appliances and clothing onto trucks parked outside their houses and left under the supervision of paramilitary police on Wednesday evening after what was the worst mass killing of civilians in modern Turkish history.
The attack, blamed on a feud between families over property and who should marry the bride, has ravaged Bilge village, which had a population of about 350 before Monday night's attack in the mainly Kurdish region.
Security sources said two more people have been arrested over the killings, raising the number of those in custody to 10. Those detained were members of a state-backed rural militia and used state-issued weapons in the attack, officials have said.
The involvement of "village guards" in the attack has revived pressure on the European Union-candidate country to rein in the heavily armed force, which is unlikely due to its importance as a source of income.
There are about 57,000 village guards in Turkey's southeast, part of a policy established in 1985 to protect villages against attacks from Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas seeking an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.
The 12 families, or about 100 to 120 people, who left Bilge were believed to be related to those suspected of having carried out the Monday evening attack.
The sources declined to say where the villagers were heading for security reasons.
Security sources said 27 weapons, two of them unlicensed, had been seized from villagers to prevent revenge attacks.
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