Two police officers, Feyyaz Yumuşak and Okan Acar, were killed in their sleep in an attack that took place in Ceylanpınar, Şanlıurfa province, on July 22.
The Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) claimed responsibility. A PKK militant broke into their house while others stood watch and killed these young police officers, aged 24-25, shooting them in their neck with a gun that had a silencer. I read the press release concerning this event on the Fırat news agency`s website. It said: “A statement from the communication center of the People`s Defense Forces (HPG), the military wing of the PKK, states that ‘a team of Apo`s security conducted a punitive action in Ceylanpınar around 6 a.m. on July 22 against two police officers who were cooperating with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gang, in retaliation for the massacre in Suruç`.” Can you imagine yourself being killed in your sleep?
I read again the statement of Sibel Kulaksız, the wife of Maj. Arslan Kulaksız, the Malazgirt gendarmerie commander in Muş province who was assassinated, on July 27: “He warned all his personnel a few days ago about not going out alone. That day, he came in his uniform by car to bring us to the barracks to break our Ramadan fast. They lay in ambush for us. They shot eight rounds from the right -- three at him, one at me. In fact, I would have been hit by the second round had he not shielded me with his chest.” She was shot in the arm during the attack and had an operation a few days after the funeral. Their 15-year-old daughter, İrem, was also in the car, sitting in the back seat, and survived without injury. Can you imagine yourself being killed in front of your wife and daughter?
These PKK atrocities clearly constitute war crimes. Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, states that its Paragraph 2(e), which lays down some definitions of war crimes, applies “to armed conflicts that take place in the territory of a state when there is a protracted armed conflict between government authorities and organized armed groups or between such groups." Thirty-two years of armed conflict between the Turkish security forces and the PKK constitute a “protracted” armed conflict that deserves to be classified under Article 8. There is no statute of limitations for war crimes, which means that those who commit them can be prosecuted and punished no matter how much time has elapsed since the crimes were committed.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross: War crimes were previously defined by the Geneva Conventions, the precedents of the Nuremberg Tribunals, an older area of law referred to as the Laws and Customs of War, and in the case of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the statutes of the International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague (ICTY and ICTR). According to these texts, violations of the laws or customs of war, including atrocities or offenses against persons or property, constituting violations of the laws or customs of war, murder, ill treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population in occupied territory, murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity constitutes war crimes. Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the crimes above are criminally responsible for everything done by anyone in carrying out such a plan. The fact that a person was obeying an order of a superior does not free him from responsibility.
Sooner or later, someone will ask the PKK to be held accountable for these actions. These acts not only undermine the peace process but also complicate the problems between Turks and Kurds. Indeed, there are two sides to every coin. The Roboski massacre, in which a Turkish F-16 carried out an air strike that resulted in 34 deaths of villagers engaged in smuggling in 2011, comes to mind. If the General Staff had confronted this event, it could speak louder about war crimes in general. As of today, it is the biggest opponent of Turkey becoming a state party to the Rome Statute.
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