For years the Turkish police have raided homes in Cizre

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Nine detained in Cizre

Special units of the Turkish police stormed several flats in Cizre and detained nine people

Nine people were taken into custody in the northern Kurdish district of Cizre on Saturday. The people concerned, among them activists from the structures of the Kurdish youth movement, were taken into custody as part of an "operation" by the Special Operations Department. The raids were carried out by police special counter-terrorism units.

Those detained are Hozan Gökalp, Tatar Gökalp, Rıdvan Türel, Nurullah Kurami, Recep Turan, Goğan Geçgel, Burhan Macak, Ahmet Türüg and Ceger Cagini. The police did not give any information on the reason for the operation. The detainees were taken to the district police station in Cizre for questioning.

The district of Cizre in the province of Şırnak is considered a stronghold of the Kurdish resistance. In the local elections in March 2019, the city hall of the city was entrusted to the HDP with 76.99 per cent of the votes. Before that, a state-appointed trustee ruled Cizre for two and a half years. A few months before he took office,

Ankara had the city extensively destroyed in the course of a military siege. Hundreds of people were killed; at least 177 people died in the "death basements of Cizre" alone. Since October 2019, Cizre has again been under trustee administration

The appointment of so-called trustees instead of democratically elected mayors has been used by the Turkish state as a weapon against local Kurdish self-government since 2014. Tomorrow, Sunday, a music festival organised by the trustee and governor will take place in Cizre. Government officials from Ankara are also set to be there. For days, the police and military have been working flat out to turn the city into a fortress. The Kurdish youth movement assumes that today's arrests are related to planned protests against the state event.

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288 people murdered in 2015 during Cizre blockade commemorated

The Association for Culture, Aid, Solidarity with Families that Lost Their Relatives in the Cradle of Mesopotamia (MEBYA-DER) made a press statement to mark the 7th anniversary of the murder of 288 people during the Turkish state forces’ genocidal attacks in the Cizre district of Şırnak in 2015.

The families who lost their relatives during the "curfews", members of the Free Women's Movement (TJA), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Şırnak Provincial Organization, HDP administrators, the Peace Mothers Assembly and numerous other people joined the press briefing in front of HDP’s Cizre district office.

MEBYA-DER Şırnak Branch Co-Chair Serhat Küçük read out the statement behind a black banner reading “We will not forget the 14 December Cizre blockade”.

NEARLY 300 PEOPLE KILLED

Küçük recalled the massacres in the basements of Cizre and stated, “The city blockades imposed as part of the 'curfew' in 2015 and 2016 were recorded as the most serious unlawfulness, human rights violations and brutality in these lands.

The city blockades that started in the cities of Kurdistan on August 16, 2015 gained new momentum following the blockade of Cizre on December 14, 2015. These aggressive practices led to a massive destruction, humanitarian crisis and brutality in our besieged cities.

Cizre was the most devastated city during these blockades. During the 3-month blockade in Cizre, nearly 300 people, including elderly, women and children, lost their lives and hundreds of people were injured. Thousands of houses were damaged, and tens of thousands of people were displaced.”

Küçük noted that the dead bodies of people killed by state forces could not be reached and retrieved for days, which gave pain to their families. “We know very well that although the bans were introduced in 2015, the massacres took place as part of the 'Collapse Plan' which was introduced by the government during the National Security Council meeting on October 30, 2014.

While the anti-Kurdish policies killed people, the living spaces of people were also burned and destroyed. People were forced to migrate. The families of those killed during the blockades could not reach the corpses for days. Dozens of dead people were buried in cemeteries of the nameless without informing the families. Moreover, dozens of bodies were kept in morgues for months for getting DNA samples, which further agonized the families.”

Küçük noted that the trials were not conducted fairly: “All attempts to bring these crimes before domestic and international courts have remained inconclusive.

As of today, 63 cases are pending before the Constitutional Court. 6 cases will be sent to the ECtHR since domestic remedies have been exhausted. 30 cases have been dismissed. 8 cases have remained inconclusive since DNA samples did not match. 20 cases are pending.

All the crimes committed during the blockade were legitimized by the AKP-MHP government. We do not accept these unfair trials. We will continue our struggle for justice until those responsible receive the punishment they deserve before an independent judiciary. We urge democratic public opinion to support the legal struggle of the people of Cizre. Those responsible must be held accountable.”

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Police take two people into custody in Cizre

Two people were taken into custody in the house raids carried out by the Turkish police in Cizre, in the province of Şirnak.

Police raided the Cudi and Nur neighbourhoods in Cizre early this morning. Special operations police raided many houses, breaking doors and looting goods.

A person named Faruk İverendi in Nur and Diyar whose surname could not be learned in Cudi were taken into custody.

The reason for the detention was not disclosed. Meryem Iverendi, mother of Faruk Iverendi, said: “There is nothing they have not done to us. They searched my house. They have thrown our children on the floor. They have stepped on my son's back with their feet and kicked him. My son has bruises all over his body. They locked us in a room and shouted and called us names.”