Cyprus-Forum.com

[miltiades]

Dozens dead in Turkish wedding party massacreTimes Online

Forty-five people were killed in an attack on a wedding party in southeast Turkey on Monday night, in what is believed to be the bloody outcome of a clan feud.

Masked gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades opened fire on wedding guests as they gathered in the town square of Bilge, in the province of Mardin, after the ceremony.

They went on to storm several houses, witnesses said. Most of the victims were women and children and included an entire family, the youngest of whom was three years old. Two teenage girls survived by hiding under the bodies of their friends.

"Unfortunately 45 citizens lost their lives... There are six wounded," Interior Minister Besir Atalay told reporters in Ankara.

The area, near the border with Syria, has been plagued by fighting between Kurdish separatists and government troops for 25 years.

But Mr Atalay said early evidence ruled out an attack by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). It was most likely the result of a blood feud, he said, echoing villagers who said a feud had been raging in the town for some time.

The fate of the bride, the daughter of a local muhtar, or village chief, and her groom was unknown. Her father, Cemil Celebi, was among the wounded and an Islamic cleric who was presiding over the marriage died in hospital.

One survivor, a 19-year-old woman, told Turkey's NTV the assailants ordered people to huddle in one room and opened fire. Another report said the attack occurred when people were praying at the house.

One survivor, a 19 year old woman, told NTV the gunmen ordered people to huddle in one room and opened fire.

"There were a few people, they broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks," a 20-year-old eyewitness said.She said there were around 200 people at the wedding party.

Ahmet Can, a relative who took the body of his nephew to a hospital said the site of the attack was horrifying.

"You could not believe your eyes, it is unbelievable," he told Turkey's Channel 24.

Mehmet Besir Ayanoglu, the mayor of nearby Mardin city, told Channel 24 that he spoke to two survivors, both girls, who said at least two masked men stormed a house where the wedding took place. Other reports put the number of assailants at four.

"They raided the house, we were in two rooms, they opened fire on everyone, they were wearing masks," Mr Ayanoglu quoted the girls as saying. The girls said they lay underneath the bodies of friends until the attack was over.

Ambulances took at least 17 bodies to the morgue of a hospital in Mardin, where hundreds of relatives of the victims gathered, wailing in grief.

The attackers were believed to have escaped before the army sealed off the roads leading into Bilge, but eight suspects were later arrested.

While the reasons from the massacre remain unclear, villagers told Turkish television there had been a bloody feud in the town in recent years.

Local media said the families of both the bride and the groom included members of the Village Guard, a heavily armed, state-backed militia set up in 1985 to protect villages from attacks by Kurdish separatist guerrillas and help fight the PKK.

There are around 70,000 village guards throughout Turkey's southeast. Their right to carry arms, to inform on suspected separatist activities and to kill in the name of the state has made them a force within the region, while critics say they use their status to settle family scores and take land.

Turkey has struggled over how to trim the guard force without releasing masses of trained fighters onto the streets of the southeast, where unemployment in some areas reaches 50 percent.

The separatist PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. """

[saravakos]

RIP to those who lost their lives...mindless killings

[Free Spirit]

Another 10 in Baghdad this morning plus 30 wounded, 355 killed in April alone.
Where's our friend offlimits2 to explain/justify this?

[saravakos]

so how about all the everyday shootings in America that you dont hear about re vlaka??

[Free Spirit]

so how about all the everyday shootings in America that you dont hear about re vlaka??

The major difference is that this oh so peaceful relgion (islam) that banns any alternative transalations of it's holy book is killing it's own people on adaily basis under the direction/orders of the muslim religious leaders (some religion).

Name any of your "everyday shootings" in America that are carried out under the direction/orders of a bonafide western religious leader.

Think you shot yourself in the foot with this one.

Where's offlimits2?

[Free Spirit]

Where's offlimits2? always noticable by his abscence when his fellow muslims are playing their national game.

[Lit]

Turkey: many killed in attack on wedding party

[Lit]

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... itias---02

ISTANBUL: Turkey said Thursday that it could reform a village militia that helps to fight Kurdish rebels following an attack on an engagement ceremony in which 44 people were killed by gunmen, including state-backed militiamen.

Investigators believe the assault Monday night in Bilge village in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish southeast was the brutal outcome of a family feud, but attention has focused on a security system that armed tens of thousands of pro-government fighters, many of them Kurds.

The assailants used weapons supplied by the state, according to authorities.

[banana growers]

How do you lot of pious pompous idiots explain how you murdered your own that didnt agree with enosis or eoka..you have short memories...

[miltiades]

How do you lot of pious pompous idiots explain how you murdered your own that didnt agree with enosis or eoka..you have short memories...

Shut up stupid !