what happened last week in Asia, Africa and the Americas

Hey, this is Sham Jaff, your very own news curator. Each week, I highlight some of the biggest stories from regions and countries that are historically underreported in Western media. My goal is to burst our Western-centric bubbles, and expand the view we hold of the world we share with one another. Questions, comments, concerns? You can reach me anytime by replying to this mail. And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can sign up at whathappenedlastweek.com.

Today in the newsletter: Issue #370 is about the Vartinis Massacre and the pursuit of justice for the nine victims (seven of which were children). Nobody has been held accountable yet for what happened to this Kurdish family some 30 years ago in Muş, Turkey.

A Turkish court found no justice for the Vartinis Massacre – for now

What happened
On October 3, 1993, some 30 years ago, the Turkish military burned down the house of a Kurdish family in a small village in Muş, Turkey in what's known as the Vartinis Massacre, following allegations that they had "aided and abetted an illegal terrorist organization (the PKK)". Nine people died, seven of them children, with the youngest being three-years-old. Fast-forward to now, and the Turkish court has dismissed the case on the grounds of statute of limitations, lifted the red notice and arrest warrant previously issued against Bülent Karaoğlu, a former gendarmerie captain and the only defendant in the case, and decided that this horrifying act doesn’t count as a "crime against humanity." Why? They say there's no solid proof it was done with any political, racial, or religious hate in mind.

Why this matters
How do/should we hold people accountable for crimes they committed a long time ago? This ruling has stirred up a hornet's nest of debate over accountability, historical justice, and the complexities of international law.

Tell me more about the victims
The victims of the Vartinis Massacre include Mehmet Nasır Öğüt, his wife Eşref Öğüt, and their seven children: Cinal, Cihan, Mehmet Şakir, Mehmet Şirin, Sevda, and Sevim Öğüt. The ages of the children ranged from 3 to 14 years. Only one family member survived, Aysel Öğüt.

What was it like in Turkey in 1993?
Absolutely not a safe place for many people, especially Kurds. During the 1990s, amidst an intense conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed Kurdish guerilla group, the Turkish government took a drastic approach that changed the landscape of southeastern Turkey forever. This wasn't your typical military operation; it involved setting Kurdish-majority villages ablaze, a tactic intended to cripple the PKK's support base. The aftermath? Between 3,000 and 4,000 villages were erased, displacing anywhere from 380,000 people according to official stats, to as many as 4 million per human rights groups. In the case of the Vartinis massacre, a Turkish soldier had been killed in the region a day before, and Turkish forces blamed the villagers for it. The houses in the village were set on fire that night. Most of the villagers could escape. But the Öğüt family could not. It was also reported that on the day of the massacre that the soldiers allegedly came to the village and threatened the villagers by saying: "We will burn your village tonight."

What now?
Aysel Öğüt is not having it. She’s pushing back with an appeal, insisting that burning nine people alive has to be recognized for what it is—a crime against humanity, no matter how you slice it. She has been knocking on the door of justice for years, trying to get answers and accountability for the night her family's home was set ablaze by soldiers. Initially, when she sought justice in the early 2000s, the case was shut down, with the court blaming "unknown perpetrators." A lawsuit was finally filed in 2013, and that's when the plot finally thickened. Hopefully, to be continued.

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The rest of Issue #369 takes you to Bangladesh (how are the elephants doing?) and to Haiti (wait, they think the dead president's widow killed him?!). Plus, women were allowed to be naked at a festival in Japan for the first in its 1,250 years (men were always allowed), Senegal's president is stepping down after all, a major mosquito problem in Argentina, a podcast about China (come on, how much do you know about the country?), what Johnny Depp and the Saudi king have in common (next to a love of Jeff Beck...), and Kiribati's creative city names, + so much more.

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