Soldiers jostle HDP deputy at site where 34 were killed

A deputy from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was manhandled by Turkish soldiers on July 7 in the southeastern district of Uludere, where 34 civilians were killed by the military in 2011, prompting the party to demand the resignation of the interior minister and the local ??rnak governor. 

HDP ??rnak deputy Ferhat Encü said soldiers from the army assaulted and pointed a gun at him when he attempted to stand with a group of villagers from Roboski, who were staging protests for the past two days on the grounds that gendarmerie forces were not permitting them to go the meadows around their villages, Do?an News Agency reported. 

Roboski, the Kurdish name for Uludere's Ortasu village, is synonymous with the Roboski Massacre of 2011, when the military killed 34 smugglers on the supposition that they were militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Encü said he had gone to the ?irit meadow, which is located near Roboski, to support the villagers, who were protesting recent pressure by gendarmerie forces, which had "gone as far as slaughtering animals and wounding people." 

"The people of Roboski have been protesting this for the past two days. Today we went to the ?irik high meadow with journalists to observe the border. On the way back, soldiers stopped us. I stepped out of the car, told them I was a lawmaker and said: 'There is no resistance against you. Why are you pointing guns at us?' They asked me who I was. I said, 'I am a lawmaker of ??rnak,' but a tense dialogue occurred between us [the soldiers and me]. That's when they pointed a gun at me," Do?an News Agency reported Encü as saying on July 7. 

"You're not our MP, you're the MP of traitors and terrorists," Encü quoted the soldiers as saying.