Two Kurdish shepherds shot by gendarmerie in southeastern Hakkari

Two young Kurdish men were shot by gendarmerie officers in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari while looking for the herd of animals they lost track of while letting them graze. The chair of the Diyarbakır Bar Association noted that the incident was the third human rights violation to occur at the border between Hakkari and Iraqi Kurdistan in the past two years.

Thursday May 20 2021 04:11 pm

Duvar English

Two young Kurdish men were shot by gendarmerie officers in the southeastern province of Hakkari, marking a third human rights violation on the Turkey-Iraqi Kurdistan border, Erbil-based news media group Rudaw reported on May 20.

Gendarmerie shot 23-year-old Şahap Şendol and 17-year-old Celil Ekinci while they were looking for a herd of animals they lost track of, Rudaw said.

Ekinci was taken into surgery for his injuries while Şendol was discharged, as witnesses said that gendarmerie officers fired on the shepherds without warning.

A video taken right after the shooting shows the two men laying on the grass unconscious while their friends frantically ask the officers for help getting them to a hospital, concerned for their lives.

The gendarmerie officers are seen waiting around the wounded armed and inactive.

The two shepherds' shooting is the third human rights violation to take place on the Turkey-Iraqi border in the past two years, Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Nahit Eren said, noting that it has exclusively been Kurds who are injured by law enforcement.

"This incident once again shows that human rights are dispensable when it comes to Kurds," Eren noted.

Ekinci's older brother Reşat Ekinci was also shot by gendarmerie officers in the region in December of 2020.