Armed assailants killed seven members of a Kurdish family in Turkey.
According to Turkish media reports, the attackers broke into the family’s home in Konya, in the center of the country, killing the residents and trying to set the house on fire. Rights activists spoke of a racist crime.
Family members were attacked and seriously injured in May. A family member who has now been killed told the Gazette Duvar news website a few days ago that neighbors threatened the family and said they “would not allow Kurds to live here.”
The whole family feared for their lives, especially since the police and judiciary did not take action against the attackers at that time.
The family’s lawyer, Abdurrahman Karabulut, spoke of an “absolute racist attack” on Arte TV. The authorities are “partly responsible for what happened.”
The vice president of the Turkish Society for Human Rights, Eren Keskin, wrote on Twitter that she had reported the case: “The youngest member of the family told me: ‘We are very scared’.”
A week and a half ago, a Kurdish farmer in the Konya region was killed by assailants who, according to eyewitnesses, threatened him that the Kurds were not wanted in the village. Konya province rejected a racist background and spoke of a dispute over livestock and land.