Turkey Feature: Angry Kurds Bury 35 Victims of Airstrikes

A funeral for one of the 35 victims of the Turkish airstrikes

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On Friday, there was widespread anger in protests, both across Turkey and internationally, over the death of 35 Kurds, 18 of whom were children, in a Turkish airstrike on Uludere village in the city of Sirnak.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan  defended the military action while promising an investigation of an "operational mistake". His words have done little to appease Kurdish regard of the incident as a further indication of their abuse by the Turkish State. In cities across the globe, there were demonstrations against the perceived crimes against the Kurds, with Amnesty calling on Ankara to fulfil its pledge of an immediate investigation.

Al Jazeera English gives further details:

Turkish rights groups have called for a UN-sponsored investigation after Turkish fighter jets killed 35 villagers in an attack on the Iraqi border that the government has called an operational mistake.

The groups' preliminary report into Wednesday's incident says that most of those killed near the border village of Uludere were between the ages of 12 and 18.

Turkish media have reported that 28 out of the 35 dead belonged to the same extended family and carried the same surname.

"The incident requires a more detailed investigation, but it is an execution without due process, and carries the characteristics of a mass murder in terms of the number of victims," Mazlumder, a rights group, and the Human Rights Association (IHD) said in their report on Friday.

"Turkish and international non-governmental organisations should investigate the incident and the UN Human Rights Committee should send a committee right away."

The incident, which is under government investigation, has raised tensions with minority Kurds in Turkey, sparking clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police in cities in the mainly pro-Kurdish southeast and areas in Istanbul.