Selami Altinok, the Turkish interior minister, said on Thursday that at least 30 Kurdish fighters and one civilian had been killed in the clashes since last Friday.
However, the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said 21 civilians had died over the same period.
Pro-Kurdish media quoted Mehmet Ali Aslan, the HDP Mardin deputy who is currently trapped in Cizre, as saying at least eight civilians were killed in attacks by Turkish forces overnight.
Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the HDP, has been leading fellow deputies and dozens of supporters on a march to Cizre to end the curfew and draw attention to the plight of its 120,000 residents.
Security forces on Thursday blocked their foot march outside the town of Idil, west of Cizre, still a few dozen kilometres from the city, the party and Turkish media said.
"It is not possible to go out and buy bread, water is coming to an end and there is no electricity," the HDP quoted Demirtas as saying on Thursday on the road to the city.
"In Cizre, 120,000 people have been held hostage by the state for a week."
Demitas said that the corpses of young girls and boys caught in the crossfire could not even be buried.
"They put ice on the corpses to stop them putrefying. Because burials are banned."
The government said it launched the operation and imposed the curfew on Cizre to eliminate Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters after a string of attacks in Turkey.
Altinok said that the curfew, which is now in its seventh day, would be continued as long as required and insisted it was in line with the law.
"Once our activities [the military operation] have been completed as soon as possible, we want to lift the curfew."
Source: Reuters And AFP
10/9/15
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Politicians of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are barred from the southeastern district of Cizre which has been under curfew for their own safety, Interior Minister Selami Altinok said Thursday...
ReplyDeleteGovernor's office declared the curfew in Cizre, a district that lies close to the Syrian and Iraqi borders in Sirnak province, on Sept. 4.
A convoy led by HDP co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag and including two HDP government ministers and dozens of HDP lawmakers was stopped by security forces Wednesday. The delegation set off on foot but was stopped 28 kilometers (17 miles) from the district Thursday.
Altinok said the security forces were acting for safety of the group.
“Because we think it might lead to different provocative incidents, it is out of the question for them to arrive at Cizre for their own safety,” he told a news conference in Ankara. “We will not let them.”
The minister added that the curfew would be lifted as soon as the security operation was finished and Cizre returned to normality.
Turkish security forces are conducting an anti-terror operation around the town to counter PKK attacks that were stepped up at the end of July following a suicide bomb attack in Sanliurfa province that killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists...............http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/590913--hdp-denied-entry-to-curfew-town-in-southeast-turkey
Turkey should grant independent observers immediate access to the besieged city of Cizre, the Council of Europe has said...
ReplyDeleteResidents in the mainly Kurdish town say they have been unable to buy food or medical supplies since a military curfew was imposed there.
Turkey launched a security operation against Kurdish militants in Cizre last Friday, which has killed at least 19.
Nils Muiznieks of the Council of Europe called the developments "distressing".
Turkey's Interior Minister Selami Altinok said seven suspected rebels had been killed in the south-eastern city.
At least 12 civilians are also believed to have died. The exact number is disputed....BBC