HAKKARİ - Behzat Hatemi, one of the 9 border traders who were detained on the Hakkari-Iran border when 2 kolbars were killed, said that the Turkish soldiers arranged some documents claiming that they were armed at the time they were extradited to Iran.

 

Iranian Sozdar Ehmedi (19) and Elişan Ehmedi (16) lost their lives as a result of fired opened by Turkish soldiers in Yüksekova on September 20. Mikail Hatemî, Ferzad Hatemî, Diyar Hatemî, Ahîn Hatêmî, Guldanî Hatemî, Zêro Hatemî, Kinyas Hatemî, Axacan Hatemî and Behzat Hatemî, who were detained by the soldiers, were handed over to Iran after being detained for 3 days. Behzat Kasemi, who was among the detained border traders, told our agency what happened.

 

'SOLDIERS DEPLOYED TO THE SCENE BY A HELICOPTER'

 

Stating that the 2 border traders who lost their lives were his friends, Hatemi said that he set out with 10 of his friends on the evening of the attack. Hatemi said, “We set out for the border in the evening. It was claimed that Turkish soldiers shot us from the air. This is not true. Soldiers landed in an area close to the area we were in by a helicopter from the air. In the late evening, we crossed the borders of Turkey from Iran and reached a place close to the village of Deraw. Soldiers began to surround us and we knew we were going to be caught. We shouted 'we are border traders' so that the soldiers would not shoot us. However they started shooting anyway. We realized that they would kill us, and we fled. But they kept firing at us. When we ran far enough, we realized that Sozdar and Elişan were missing. We thought they were caught but with the first lights of the morning, we realized that we were surrounded by the soldiers. The soldiers caught us all and took us to the police station. When we arrived at the police station, the soldiers said that Sozdar and Elişan were dead. In the evening, they brought the bodies of our friends who were killed. We thought if we told them we were border traders, which is true, they wouldn't kill us. But they shot two of our friends."

 

'THEY BROUGHT GUNS'

 

Hatemi said: "They didn't torture us at the police station, but the biggest torture was the shooting of our friends. Would that be more painful than that? While in custody, they brought a gun and said it belonged to us. We said, 'Check our fingerprints, if the guns belong to us, arrest us'. The reason they brought the guns was an effort to cover up their crimes. When they handed us over to Iran, they wrote that we had weapons. But the whole world knows what border traders do and that we don't carry guns with us. They were going to justify themselves and say that because we were armed, they had to kill us. They killed our friends, and our horses too."

 

MA / Mazlum Engindeniz