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Kars Vegas, Digor Texas

25 years ago in Kars' Digor District in Turkey, the government declared a food embargo and curfew with the excuse that local people were assisting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). On August 14, 1993, a protest march against the government's repressive policies was organized and more than 5,000 civilians joined the protest. Special operations of police forces opened fire to the protesting crowd and killed 5 children and 17 adults and wounded 67 others, according to official records. 20 civilians lost their lives because the police did not allow the ambulance to pass by blocking the streets, but these deaths were not recorded officially. I started a research project of this massacre in 2015 and accidentally found one documentary produced by YLE from victims' relatives. This documentary (name is 'Kahden Kuoleman Välissä' by Ulkolinja) about Kurdish issue in Turkey include Digor massacre. In the incident time police destroyed all photos and videos from other Turkish journalists who were there. For this reason the documentary is an extreme importance and it contains the last images from the massacre. I intend to continue my research on this documentary.

‘25 years ago, in Kars' Digor District, in Turkey, the government declared a food embargo and curfew with the excuse that local people were assisting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). On August 14th, 1993, a protest march against the government's repressive policies was organized and more than 5,000 civilians joined the protest. Special operations of police forces opened fire to the protesting crowd and killed 5 children, 17 adults and wounded 67 others, according to official records. 20 civilians lost their lives because the police did not allow the ambulance to pass by blocking the streets, but these deaths were not recorded officially.’

The research is tracing the documentary about the incident by YLE, witnesses, lost materials, to find an answer for the ethnic conflict between Kurds, PKK and Turkish State. This result is referring to Turkish politics in the context of today’s conjuncture and policies through 90’s Turkish politics and oppressive powers to different ethnicities.

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