SIHA — the acronym sounds like the name of a pop starlet. But for some villagers in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region it spells death. SIHA stands for “Silahli Insansiz Hava Araci,” Turkish for Armed Unmanned Airborne Vehicles, or UAVs.
On Aug. 31 an armed drone belonging to the Turkish air force dropped its payload on four locals as they were picnicking near the village of Ogul in Hakkari, a remote province near the Iraqi border. It was the day before Eid al-Adha. Mehmet Temel died and the other three were injured, one gravely, in the attack. “They left my son’s three children fatherless. … They turned our [Eid] into poison,” wept the victim’s mother as she related the tragedy to members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).