SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Kurdish family living in a village in Turkey’s Antalya was attacked by hundreds of people overnight, Mezopotamya news agency reported on Monday.
The news agency cited one of the workers as saying that a group of 300 “racist people” attacked the Kurdish family in Elmali district, southwest of Antalya.
The family who is from Mardin, a Kurdish area in southeast of Turkey, went to the area for seasonal agricultural works.
“The attack took place overnight and they broke my brother’s nose and ribs,” Mezopotamya quoted Sarbast Kurga, one of the family’s members, as saying.
“The reason behind the attack is that we are Kurds, and they told us that we had leave their land. In addition, they thought Kurds had set the forests on fire,” he said.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Kemal Bulbul told Roj News that the family was safe but dangers on the Kurds were rising.
On July 30, seven members of a Kurdish family were killed in Konya by armed assailants who tried to burn their house in what rights activists said was a racist attack.
The Dedeoglu family had been seriously injured in another attack in the middle of May by neighbors who warned them that they “will not let Kurds live here” in the region of Konya, according to AFP.
One of the dead members had complained in mid-July that the police and judges had been partial towards the May attackers who had been freed, and said the family feared for their lives.
Abdurrahman Karabulut, their lawyer, said the liberation of the perpetrators of the first attack signaled impunity.
On Sunday, a U.S. State Department’s spokesperson said the United States expected Turkey to launch an investigation into the killing of the family.
“It is in our shared interest for Turkey to be a stable, democratic, prosperous, and reliable Ally,” the spokesperson told Esta Media Network.
“We expect Turkey to respect and ensure a thorough investigation of this egregious act and any allegations of racism.”
But the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said there had been several attacks on Kurds over the years.
“The hate speech and provocation of the authorities is the main cause of this massacre,” said Mithat Sancar, HDP’s co-president.
It was the second deadly attack on Kurds in Konya in a month.
On July 21, a Kurdish farmer was killed in a village in Konya by attackers who shouted, “We don’t want Kurds here.”
Earlier this month, seven Kurdish workers were injured by a group of Turks in Derecine village in Turkey’s Sultandagi district, according to Mezopotamya news agency.
A Kurdish man and woman from Iranian Kurdistan were also attacked and beaten by a restaurant owner in Turkey this month.
The two showed bruises on their bodies in a video circulated on social media.
In May, another Kurdish family from the Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, was also attacked by a group of Turks in Bozyazi district in Mersin.
Two members of the family including a father and a son were wounded.
In 2019, a group of tourists from the Kurdistan Region carrying a Kurdistan flag scarf was also attacked by locals in the city of Trabzon as they were trying to take pictures.
