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Şemdinli attack victims continue to suffer on 4th anniversary
When the attack occurred, Metin Korkmaz was injured while Mehmet Zahir Korkmaz died. He was 29 and left behind a widow and two children. His daughter, Fatma, is now 11 and in the fifth grade, and his son, Yusuf, is now 8 years old and in the third grade. His wife, Hamide Korkmaz, is 28 years old. She is angry that the perpetrators of the incident continue to walk free. Speaking of her husband, she remembers: “He worked as a taxi driver. All he cared about was eking out a living so he could feed us. He was very committed to his family. He never hurt anyone. He was killed for no reason. Now those who killed him are walking free. They killed my husband like an animal.”
She also complained about the negligence of the state. “For the past four years, I have been all alone with two orphans. They could have at least covered the children’s school costs. The state owes us to cover our minimum expenses. The state cannot bring my spouse back, but those who killed him for no reason should not be free. They should arrest the murderers.”
Yusuf was told about his father’s death two years after of the incident, after crying his eyes out every night wondering why his daddy would not come home. Fatma, who remembers the day in all its details, wants to talk about her father but is held back by tears and sobs at the first sentence.
Şemdinli stores shut down on Nov. 9 anniversary
Yesterday, stores in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari pulled down their shutters to commemorate the Şemdinli bookstore attack.
One person died and five were wounded in an attack on the Umut Bookstore by two noncommissioned officers and a former PKK member working for the gendarmerie force. The bookstore was owned by Seferi Yılmaz, a suspected member of the PKK who had stood trial on that charge.
Noncommissioned officers Ali Kaya and Özcan İldeniz and PKK informant Veysel Ateş are still standing trial in the attack before a military court, but they are not being held in jail.
On the fourth anniversary of the attack, no businesses except for pharmacies and bakeries were open in the town.
An official from the Democratic Society Party (DTP) said his party did not request the mass store closings.
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