Turkish gov’t to testify in ECtHR for deaths during curfews in southeast Anatolia

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will ask Turkish authorities to testify concerning the human rights violations and killing of civilians by the Turkish military during the curfews imposed in Cizre district of the southeastern city of Şırnak, according to a report by pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency.

Turkish authorities declared military curfews in mostly Kurdish-populated southeastern provinces beginning from August 2015. The final curfew in Cizre lasted 79 days and ended on March 5, 2016. The majority of the district was demolished during the clashes between the Kurdish militia and the Turkish security forces.

Security operations by the government affected more than 30 towns and neighborhoods and displaced between 355,000 and half a million people, mostly of Kurdish origin, according to a report released by the United Nations.

The very same report said up to 189 men, women and children were trapped for weeks in basements without water, food, medical attention, and power before being killed by fire, induced by shelling.

The ECtHR published an announcement about the Cizre hearing on its website and said the cases of Ömer Elçi and Ahmet Tunç, both killed in the curfews, would take place on Nov. 13 in Strasbourg.

Elçi and Tunç alongside with other civilians died in a basement of a building while waiting for medical aid to reach them. The security forces did not let the ambulances to enter the city, the human rights organizations said.

Ramazan Demir, the lawyer of the Tunç family, told Mezopotamya news agency that the court accepted two cases on Cizre, the first one concerns the legality of the curfews while the second case would focus on civilian killings.

If the court decides in favor of Tunç and Elçi cases, it would be a leading case for the other civilians who lost their lives and the curfews imposed by the Turkish government, Demir said.

The Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared at least 332 curfews in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern part of Turkey since August 16, 2015, according to a report released by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) in October.

TİHV’s report said Diyarbakır, with 190 curfews, was the province with the greatest number of curfews. The TİHV Documentation Center has also stated that 332 curfews were declared in 11 provinces and at least 50 districts from August 16, 2015, to October 1, 2018.

The provinces in which curfews were declared were Diyarbakır (190), Mardin (53), Hakkari (23), Şırnak (13), Bitlis (18), Muş (7), Bingöl (7), Siirt (7), Tunceli (6), Batman (6) and Elazığ (2).

According to TİHV’s report, at least 1,809,000 people have been affected by the curfews. (SCF with Ahval)

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from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/turkish-govt-to-testify-in-ecthr-for-deaths-during-curfews-in-southeast-anatolia/