ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A court in Turkey’s Mardin on Thursday handed down life sentences to two murderers convicted of killing five members of two families from the Kurdistan Region last year.  One family had gone for medical treatment, and the other for visiting their relatives in the country.

Shortly after the incident, Turkish media published CCTV footage showing a vehicle following the two families before they were all shot dead on a highway near Nusaybin, Mardin province on January 19, 2023.

The murdered included Haji Abdullah Salih, his wife Chiman Shahin, and his daughter Handren as well as Mala Ahmed Jalaladin and his mother Walida Haydar. 

A member of one of the two families slammed the verdict, saying the criminals "had to be punished by death.” 

The incident sparked outrage across the Kurdistan Region and on a government level. 

Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region at the time, spoke with relatives of both families, “ensuring” them that  “the criminals” would be referred to court and receive their just punishment. 

The incident was also widely protested across Turkey after over 60 Turkish NGOs and government officials in Mardin strongly condemned the assassinations and called on the government to harshly punish the perpetrators. 

Anti-Kurdish sentiment has a deep root in Turkey, something which dates back to the early days of the foundation of modern Turkey in the 20s of the last century. 

Turkey is one of the top tourist destinations for the people of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Many people from Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok provinces visit the country for medical treatments. 

Some visitors from the Kurdistan Region holidaying in Turkey, however, often get harassed at airports or sometimes attacked by racists at resorts.

In early September, a Kurdish man from Duhok was killed in Istanbul after reportedly being stabbed by a group of a dozen Turkish individuals allegedly for speaking Kurdish loudly on the phone with his relatives abroad, his immediate family members had told The New Region.