Witness of the Roboski Massacre: My childhood was ruined after the massacre

2023-12-27 12:43:40


	 

	ŞIRNEX - Cansel Encü, who was only 10 years old when she lost her brother in the Roboskî Massacre, said: “Tractors were full of corpses passing us. I touched my brother, it was cold. From that day on, I had a terrible childhood."

	 

	On December 28, 2011, 34 people, including 19 children, were bombed and murdered by warplanes belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the Roboskî village of Şirnex's Qileban (Uludere) district. Children of that time, who lost their siblings, friends and relatives in the Roboski Massacre, remember the massacre like it was yesterday, despite the years that have passed.

	 

	Cansel Encü was 10 years old on the day of the massacre. She lost her older brother Muhammed Encü (13), who was 3 years older than her, in the Roboski massacre. Cansel Encü, who refers to her brother, who is the oldest in the house, as "my best friend", has not yet gotten over the trauma of seeing her brother's cold corpse return home in the trunk of a tractor, as she left the house with a smile. Stating that she never forgot that day, Encü said: "My childhood was ruined after the massacre."

	 

	'I DID NOT GIVE HIS CLOTHES SO THAT HE WOULD NOT LEAVE'

	 

	Describing the day of the massacre, Encü said: “I was 10 years old. My father wasn't at home that night. My brother said to my mother, 'I will go to the border.' My mother told him, 'Don't go, your father is angry.' He said, 'This is the last time I go, I won't go again.' Later, my mother and I tied the mule so that my brother would not leave. So he went and took our neighbor's mule. I said to my brother, 'Don't go, what are you going to do in this cold?' I didn't even give him his clothes so he wouldn't leave, but he didn't listen to us and left. As he left, he smiled and waved at us. Around 21:00 in the evening, my mother was not standing still and had a very bad feeling inside. Then a voice came. My mother came out and said 'something happened'. 20 minutes passed and screams echoed everywhere. When those screams came, I threw myself out. Everyone was outside. Then my cousin came and said to me, 'bring my gloves, give me the light, we will go.' Outside, the screams did not stop. Everyone was saying something, everyone was saying 'my son is dead'.”

	 

	Encü, who said he saw corpses loaded onto tractors, stated that she could not live his childhood since that day. Encü said: "I was traumatized. Everyone took blankets and ran to the scene in fear of their lives. It was a very bad situation. My mother also went and entrusted my 1-year-old brother to me. My hands were shaking with fear and I kept praying, 'God, please protect my brother.' "I did it. Then the news came and they said they were all killed."

	 

	'TRACTORS WERE FULL OF BODIES'

	 

	Stating that his brother also tried to save his mule during the bombardment, he said: “My father found my brother's body, he had the rope of his mule in one hand. He also tried to save the mule. They brought the bodies of four people from our neighborhood on a tractor. We woke up in the morning and tractors full of corpses were passing us. I will never forget my father's despair. My mother insisted on looking at his corpse. But my father said to him, 'Look at him, there is nothing left of him.' I was a child and I went and touched the funeral. When the tractor carrying the corpse passed, I ran after it."

	 

	'MY BROTHER WOULDN'T COME BACK AGAIN'

	 

	Encü expressed the feeling she felt when she touched her brother's corpse as follows: "I touched the corpse, it was cold. It was hard as wood, I had feelings that I cannot describe. I cannot express what I felt at that moment. I felt not just one thing, but many things. I felt that my brother would not come back again. We had a very difficult childhood. Imagine, a lot of bodies are passing you on tractors. My childhood was ruined after the massacre. We haven't recovered since that day. I don't have faith in justice. If there was justice, it would have come in all these years."

	 

	Finally, Encü said that she was preparing for university and wanted to be a lawyer, and that she would work to bring this injustice to account.

	 

	MA / Zeynep Durgut

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