Since the early morning hours of 21 December 2015, the commanders of Turkish Army have announced that the inhabitants must leave from their homes otherwise the authorities could not admit the responsibility. Similarly, in Sur, Nusaybin and Dargeçit, the Kurdish people are forced to evacuate their homes. At this time, people are experiencing very dramatic developments which are unlawful.
The Turkish State has been using the ditches and barricades in Kurdish towns to justify the curfews which are totally unlawful implementations according to Turkish national law. Total punishment and brutal violations strategy is followed by the authorities to deactivate the limited number of armed people. The Kurdish population is under serious attacks of Turkish military forces, special operational police forces, including the Esedullah team (fascist and jihadist paramilitary armed group) in the regions where the authorities imposed curfews.
According to Human Rights Association data, between 24 July and 9 December 2015, 157 civilians lost their lives and were massacred. Between the dates mentioned above, we do not know how many militants and armed young people were killed. It is an anomalous, brutal and dirty war. Turkish Punishment legislation is suspended and the principle according to which the presumption of innocence, defendant rights, prohibition of torture, absolute right to live is regulated, are widely violated. The Turkish judgment is totally out of order and the authorities do not conduct effective investigation against serious violations.
The population negatively affected by the curfews is increasing day by day. Since the 16 August 2015, the authorities declared 32 curfews in 8 districts in Diyarbakır, 9 curfews in 3 districts in Mardin, 7 curfews in 2 districts in Şırnak, 4 curfews in one district in Hakkari, and in Muş/Varto, Batman/Sason, Elazığ/Arıcak. More than 1.300.000 are people directly and negatively affected by these curfews and we should emphasize that all Kurdish towns and cities are affected entirely. In addition, people are currently being forced to move and more than one hundred thousand people already vacated their homes and towns.
Since December 14, 2015, Chief of Defense and other Army Commanders became a part of the operations. The Turkish Army is fighting in Cizre and Silopi with an army of 10.000 soldiers. The Turkish President and Prime Minister are making macabre statements such as expressing that they are going to bury everyone opposing them to ditches.
Just like, and even more than, in the 1990’s, the Turkish State became completely extrajudicial. Rights to life, which has to be protected under all conditions, is violated and a number of people, notably civilians are dying every day. The legal system is disabled. A brutal dirty war without rules is being conducted. Turkey is evidently violating the statements on human rights undertaken within UN and European Council. The situation is serious and quite dire.
We are now making this statement to remind the dimensions of this dirty war and to attract the attention of democratic public and the international community to Kurdish cities of Turkey and appeal for help. We want you to stop Turkish State. Otherwise we will face massacres. We also want it to be known that we also criticize the PKK within this period.
The curfews are going on in Diyarbakır-Sur for 19 days, Mardin-Dargeçit for 10 days, Şırnak-Cizre and Silopi for 7 days and Mardin-Nusaybin for 7 days and the current situation is escalating. Army and police forces are calling people to leave their homes. Just like the evacuation of villages in 1990’s. These provinces are under a close and severe threat of massacre. If we do not raise our voices today, tomorrow may be too late.
We invite and call sensitive sectors notably the international community to react, to object and to stop the Turkish State.