“In  the first 9 months…” TERROR IN ‘TURKISH’ KURDISTAN

There isn’t a poem or a text or a piece of music that can adequately describe the terror and the outrage and the pain inflicted on humans in the course of our long history. If another species had perpetrated this on us we would more than likely seek to flee from or destroy them…instead we have ‘invented’ war…on ourselves…in an effort to eradicate apparently ‘ourselves-in-the-guise-of-another’…the other…this enemy of everything we cherish that haunts even our dreams with its language of our-own hatred and violence…

Somehow and somewhere there has to be an adequate explanation for this situation and a map to find our way through its impenetrable darkness so that all children and all our children’s children will be allowed to live in peace as the most important of human rights, capable and willing to protect our planet and all its inhabitants as a living miracle in an ocean of darkness…

That day is not here. And so, despite the inadequacy of words, we are left with no alternative than to give shape to our own suffering or the suffering of our fellow citizens and humans through words and language in the broadest sense of the term…

Thus on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 the Ahmed – (Diyarbak?r: “Kurdish: Amed?; is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey. Situated on the banks of the Tigris River, it is the administrative capital of the Diyarbak?r Province. With a population of about 930,000 it is the second largest city in Turkey’s south-eastern Anatolia region, after Gaziantep.”) – Branch of the Human Rights Association (?nsan Haklar? Derne?i, “IHD” – founded on 17 July 1986, “by 98 people, comprising lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, but mainly relatives of political prisoners”), have launched their report on human rights violations in the first 9 months of 2016 in Northern Kurdistan, at the association’s headquarters.

 

?HD Branch Chairperson Raci Bilici said:

“We demand the state of emergency which paves the way for severe human rights violations be dismissed immediately, the clashes to end as soon as possible, and that the parties negotiate a return to a period of inaction and solution. We wish for a life filled with freedom and dignity.”

 

Following President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s 2015-ending of the peace talks begun in 2012 with the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê?), the Turkish State has declared war on the people of Northern Kurdistan in the guise of eradicating the Kurdish Workers’ Party. But while many Kurdish militants have died, a significant amount of civilian casualties have occurred as well as attacks on civilian homes and property as well as the towns and cities of Northern Kurdistan. In a sense, as an outsider, it is often impossible to distinguish how the Turkish state sees any difference between members of the PKK and the Kurdish population in general…

This recent report highlights a list of atrocities that the world needs to listen to in order to respond urgently, if we are ever to give shape and voice to a human community on this planet.

In the first 9 months of the year 2016, according to ?HD’s report, there were a total of 40,573 rights violations and more than 2,000 people have lost their lives since military operations began in July 2015.

These figures break down into some disturbing categories:

In the first 9 months of 2016:

756 sick prisoners, 300 of them in critical condition, were abandoned in the jails.

34 women have been murdered in the first 9 months and 8 women were said to have committed suicide.

9 children have been murdered in the same period of time, 9 children were driven to suicide and 71 children were subjected to sexual abuse.

 

A total of 1,040 people lost their lives and 1077 people were wounded in extrajudicial killings…

102 civilians lost their lives “as a result of Organisation’s (PKK)” actions, and 635 civilians were wounded.

36 people lost their lives in the attacks on the border line, 39 others were wounded.

2 women and 7 children lost their lives in landmine and unclaimed explosive explosions. 28 people (22 children) were wounded.

23 people including 6 women and 1 child lost their lives in suspicious circumstances. 8 people committed suicide under suspicious circumstances.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

On violations against women’s living spaces, 8 women committed suicide.

18 women lost their lives in domestic violence incidents.

10 women lost their lives in public violence against women.

50 rights violations against women in total.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

On violations against children:

9 children committed suicide,

8 children lost their lives in domestic and social violence incidents,

71 children were subjected to sexual abuse.

There were a total of 90 rights violations against children.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

Despite the ban on torture:

553 people were subjected to torture and violence in the first 9 months of the year.

5,213 detained persons and 1,334 arrested persons experienced rights violations.

2,591 homes were raided by the state in the first 9 months of the year.

17 people were kidnapped by organisation’s members.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

On rights violations of thought and expression:

23 radio and television networks were shut down,

32 web sites were banned,

4 media organs were raided,

94 publications were banned and recalled,

3 activities were banned.

565 people were investigated against freedom of thought and expression.

Lawsuits were filed for 48 people.

103 people were penalized.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

 On the right to assembly:

35 political parties, 8 associations, 4 education and culture institutions and 17 other NGOs were raided.

17 associations and 2 education and culture institutions were shut down as a result of these raids.

On the right to organise and protest:

Police intervened in 72 demonstrations and marches and 34 gatherings and protests were banned.

 

In the first 9 months of 2016:

There were 1,007 rights violations in the prisons.

907 people were fired for different reasons.

13,055 public workers were investigated.

10,448 of them were removed from duty.

On violations of the right to education;

27 people in universities were investigated,

105 people received penalties and 3 students were expelled.

 

This report follows closely the Report on Cizre of April 2016,

(https://hdpenglish.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-cizre-report/), where:

“…undoubtedly, Cizre is the leading place in which these sieges and curfews turned into barbarity and destruction.” The Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) said…

 

..along with the ongoing investigations into the murder of almost 300 civilians trapped  in 3 Basement in Cizre (“…the basements of horror”) by Turkish security forces…

 

If this now accounts for the first 9 months of 2016 what are we to expect for the rest of the year, or the decade, or the century itself?

 

Surely it is time for Turkeys ‘allies’ in NATO and Europe, who make much noise about their concern for human rights and the rule of law to take a firm stand against these violations of human integrity happening on our doorstep and yet still, somehow convenient to ignore?

 

The Human Rights Association (Turkey) (?nsan Haklar? Derne?i – IHD) says:

“Despite all the risks, pressures and obstacles, IHD has monitored the human rights violations, which resulted from military operations and armed conflict in the East and Southeast Regions of Turkey. IHD has followed these events and prepared reports about them and then announced to the public. The Association struggles against murders by unknown person, villages’ evacuation and extra judicial execution. IHD always defends peace under any circumstances. Human Rights Association argues that problems can be solved through democratic means and methods. Principally, IHD refuses any violence without regarding its origin.

 

The Association regards the Kurdish problem as one of the basic democracy and human rights problems in Turkey. IHD believes that not only the Kurdish problem, but also the other language, religious, ethnic and cultural differences can be solved by means of the principle of pluralism of democracy.”

(http://en.ihd.org.tr/index.php/2008/12/08/history-of-human-rights-association-ihd/)

 

?HD Amed Branch Chairperson, Raci Bilici speaking at the launch of the Report said that after 2,000 death in such a short time period the Kurdish issue could not be solved through violent government policies and invited both parties to declare a ceasefire so that the conditions for negotiations can be reached.

 

“Bilici also demanded that the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan be lifted immediately.” (ANF News, Oct 16, 2016)

 

séamas carraher

 

Sources & References (thanks to)

 

http://www.anfenglish.com/human-rights/what-happened-in-northern-kurdistan-in-9-months

http://www.ihddiyarbakir.org/Basin.aspx?ID=393

 

Background

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbak%C4%B1r

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Association_(Turkey)

 

The Cizre Report: https://hdpenglish.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-cizre-report/

The Cizre Report: http://www.globalrights.info/2016/07/75011/

 

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/11/turkey-state-blocks-probes-southeast-killings

 

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