The families put the blame for the June killings of nine soldiers by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists in Şemdinli on Maj. Gen. Gürbüz Kaya, the commander of the Hakkari Division Command. Kaya came under fire when he said security cameras captured images of individuals approaching the Şemdinli border unit, but that at the time they believed they were either shepherds or smugglers. “Seeing the images, we started to fire weapons into the area but received no response. We thought they were shepherds, villagers or smugglers,” he said.Concerns surrounding the deaths of six soldiers on June 20 in a terrorist attack on the Hantepe outpost in Çukurca, Hakkari province, deepened with the emergence of new evidence that information was provided by Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to 30 security units -- including the General Staff -- of every moment of the attack, but security forces failed to take action against the terrorist group.
Herons detected the terrorist group in the Hantepe area approximately 20 minutes before the attack. Based on Heron intelligence, commanders at the outpost and 30 security units, including the General Staff headquarters, were informed about the PKK threat in the region.
But this intelligence was ignored and units failed to act until the terrorists had executed their bloody mission and left the area.
The Taraf daily published several images of terrorists around the Hantepe outpost captured by the Herons. The images outraged the families of soldiers, who said that failing to prevent the terrorist attack is tantamount to treason.
