December 2015–February 2016 Cizre Curfew
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The December 2015–February 2016 Cizre curfew was the second
Turkish military The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Staff, the Turki ...
curfew in
Cizre Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Di ...
since the onset of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict after the end of the cease fire between the PKK and the Turkish state in 2015. The curfew took place within the scope of the 2015–16 Şırnak clashes and after the September 2015 Cizre curfew, during a period of violent curfews throughout
Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...
. The Cizre curfew involved "wholesale destruction of large residential areas carried out by the military", which used
crew-served weapon A crew-served weapon is any weapon system that is issued to a crew of two or more individuals performing the same or separate tasks to run at maximum operational efficiency, as opposed to an individual-service weapon, which only requires one pe ...
s, including
airstrike An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...
s. More than 150 civilian were burned alive while sheltering in basements.


The curfew

On the 14 December 2015, the Turkish Government announced a twenty-four hour curfew for the city of Cizre. As in other places, the Turkish military used heavy weapons to bomb residential areas. According to
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the total death toll was "up to 160". Around 20 January Turkish military opened fire without warning on a group of unarmed Kurdish civilians waving white flags, thereby killing two and wounding nine people. The video journalist Refik Tekin filming the incident was shot in the leg and later accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation. Turkish state media reported: "Three terrorists were neutralised and nine others wounded". The
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
expressed concerns and urged an investigation. During the military operations in the weeks before the massacre on 7 February there were reports about people trapped in basements, some of them wounded, and that the government denied emergency ambulance access. ''
Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...
'' published a recording of a telephone conversation with the citizens in one of the basements.


Cizre basement massacre

The violence peaked on 7 February 2016, when more than 150 civilians were killed by Turkish security forces, reportedly many burnt alive. The same sources claim that the evidence shows these were intentional massacres and deliberate executions that "cannot be explained only as a result of the fighting." Some of the claimed dead were allegedly children as young as nine to 10 years old. Some of the totally burned corpses could not be identified. In another recording it is reported that Turkish security forces burned about 20 people alive after pouring gasoline into a basement, and that they were playing music used by the ultra-nationalist organisation called
Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
. As reported by
IPPNW International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned people who share the goal of ...
, according to the
Human Rights Association The Human Rights Association ( tr, İnsan Hakları Derneği, İHD) is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara. Establishment The İHD's origins can be traced to the victims of the purges in the ...
178 unarmed people were killed by the Turkish military and their bodies found in three basements. The same is reported by Kurdish sources. Turkey called these accusations "baseless terror propaganda" used as "recruitment tools". According to the UN Turkey refused to allow a UN team to conduct research in the area. The UN says it has reports that more than 100 people were burned to death while sheltering in basements in Cizre. There was no crime scene investigation and no judicial authority was allowed to enter the basements. Instead the Turkish authorities arranged that the ruins were flattened, the basements filled up with rubble, and bodies were taken away. Therefore,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
suspects a cover-up.


In the media

: There is no balanced coverage by Turkish media because of
censorship in Turkey Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter (in theory) taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey (so amended in 2004). Despite legal provisions, free ...
and
Media blackout Media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. The latter case is controversial in ...
s. In particular with regard to the
Kurdish–Turkish conflict Kurdish nationalist uprisings have periodically occurred in Turkey, beginning with the Turkish War of Independence and the consequent transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish state and continuing to the present day with the curr ...
, critical journalists in Turkey risk prosecution and imprisonment for 'terrorist propaganda'. This is barring a large part of the country from knowing what is going on in the Kurdish region. Articles of the Zaman newspaper on the Cizre basement massacre have become inaccessible after the March 2016 government takeover. : ''
Telepolis ''Telepolis'' is a German Internet magazine, published by the Heinz Heise Verlag since the beginning of 1996. It was founded by journalists Armin Medosch and Florian Rötzer and deals with privacy, science, culture, internet-related and ge ...
'' reported about this topic in several articles containing links to further information, there were also some reports on ''
Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
'' (see references). : ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' started to report in April 2016 about some incidents during the curfew. End of May there was a
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
report on the Cizre basement massacre.


Reactions

: In March 2016 the
Russian Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MFA Russia; russian: Министерство иностранных дел Российской Федерации, МИД РФ) is the central government institution charged with lea ...
addressed the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office, asking for it to investigate. : On 10 May 2016 the UN high commissioner for human rights has voiced alarm about violence against civilians by Turkish government forces in Kurdish-majority south-eastern Turkey, in particular in Cizre, and expressed concern over the Turkish government’s refusal to allow a UN team to conduct research in the area.


See also

*
Cizre operation (2015) During the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present), in September Turkish security forces launched an operation in Cizre. The Turkish security forces sealed off the city and placed a curfew for eight days, from September 4–11. The town had ...
* 2015-16 Şırnak clashes * Roboski airstrike *
Başbağlar massacre The Başbağlar massacre ( tr, Başbağlar Katliamı) is the name given to the 5 July 1993 massacre of 33 civilians in the village of Başbağlar (which was then burnt down), in Erzincan Province during the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. While the a ...
* Pınarcık massacre *
Blue Market massacre The Blue Market massacre ( tr, Mavi Çarşı Katliamı) refers to the terrorist attack of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on 13 March 1999 which resulted in the killing of 13 civilians. Attack The attack happened on a busy Saturday afternoon ...
* 26 July 1994 bombing of North Iraq


References


External links


HDP documentary on Turkish war crimes in Cizre

Documentary on Turkish war crimes during siege of the Kurdish town Cizre that killed 100s of civilians (EN subs)

Cizre: Turkish security forces open fire on Kurdish civilians without warning

Turkey: Footage shows basement where 150 reportedly burned alive in Cizre

Cizre deaths leave unanswered questions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cizre massacre 2016 murders in Turkey Military operations involving Turkey History of Şırnak Province Attacks in Turkey in 2016 Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan controversies Massacres committed by Turkey Massacres in 2016 Massacres in Turkish Kurdistan 21st-century sieges Arson in Turkey Arson in 2016 2016 fires in Asia Cizre District 2015 building bombings 2016 mass shootings in Asia Building bombings in Turkey Mass shootings in Turkey 2016 airstrikes Airstrikes conducted by Turkey Cover-ups 21st-century mass murder in Turkey December 2015 events in Turkey January 2016 events in Turkey February 2016 events in Turkey December 2015 crimes in Asia January 2016 crimes in Asia February 2016 crimes in Asia