A report prepared by the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (Mazlumder) on a curfew that had been in place for the past 12 days in the southeastern town of Silvan has said civilians were targeted with real weapons during the curfew.
The report, which was released on Tuesday, said Mazlumder’s inspections as well as witness reports revealed that the operations carried out in the district threatened civilians’ security of life and property and that security forces targeted civilians with real weapons. “In contrary to authorities’ claims that no civilians suffered damage during the curfew, we have found that many civilians suffered damage and some were even killed during the curfew,” the report said.
The report said security forces houses, workplaces and cars of civilians were damaged by security forces who forcefully entered some houses, searched and damaged them.
Mazlumder said security forces went beyond the laws and violated civilians’ right to life during the curfew.
Intense combat beginning Nov. 3 between security forces and the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) — an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — forced hundreds of families to flee their homes in the curfew zone. This latest curfew was the sixth time Silvan has been effectively paralyzed in the past three months, and it is not expected to be the last.
The 12-day curfew has drawn widespread criticism from opposition politicians, especially from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and rights groups, who said the civilians had suffered immensely under the curfew.
Curfews like these have become frequent in the predominately Kurdish-populated southeastern region of Turkey, where the areas of Cizre and Nusaybin are currently under lockdown.