During the

Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) Kurdish nationalism, 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 pre ...

, in September Turkish

security forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several countries, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of irregular military and paramilitar ...

launched an operation in

Cizre Cizre () is a city in the Cizre District of Şırnak Province in Turkey. It is located on the river Tigris by the Syria–Turkey border and close to the Iraq–Turkey border. Cizre is in the historical region of Upper Mesopotamia and the cultura ...

. The Turkish security forces sealed off the city and placed a curfew for eight days, from September 4–11. The town had limited access to water and food and many of the injured were prohibited to receive professional medical treatment. The

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

raised concerns about "disproportionate use of force by security forces against civilians." Leyla İmret, the mayor of Cizre at the time, was forcefully removed from her post under charges of supporting

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. On September 10, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, deputy chair of the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP), criticized the siege of Cizre and demanded an end to the week-long curfew.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

expressed concern at disproportionate measures taken by Turkish authorities such as "indefinite, round-the-clock curfew", "blocking all access to the city", "cutting electricity, water and communications to the entire population of Cizre". A march towards Cizre against the operation in which about 50 parliamentarians of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was stopped in İdil by the Turkish security forces. The Turkish military wouldn't allow even the passage of two Ministers of the Turkish Government, claiming Cizre to be in an area where only the military had access. The Kurdish MPs answered that they were not expecting to be threatened by the people in Cizre and Selahattin Demirtas drew comparisons between the Siege of Kobani and Cizre. On September 12,

Nils Muižnieks Nils Muižnieks (born 31 January 1964 in the United States) is a Latvian-American human rights activist and political scientist. He had served as the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights between 2012 and 2018, succeeding Thomas ...

, human rights commissioner for the

, expressed concern over claims of "disproportionate use of force" against civilians in Cizre and called on Turkey to allow access to independent observers. On September 11, Turkey announced that it would lift the curfew temporarily, however the open-ended curfew was reimposed two days later. According to a report by the

Turkish Medical Association The Turkish Medical Association (, abbreviated as TTB) is the professional association and registered trade union for doctors in Turkey. Its membership of 110,000 as of the year 2020, covers 80% of Turkey's doctors.TTBTürk Tabipleri Birliği; Ne ...

, the security forces severely restricted medical staff in their work and armoured vehicles with snipers were parked on the hospital grounds and occupied the emergency rooms. The clashes resulted in a continued standoff between Turkish security forces and YDG-H and were followed by the December 2015–February 2016 Cizre curfew.

Casualties

According to the Turkish regional governor, forty PKK members were killed in Cizre operation during an eight days curfew. He added that seventeen suspected militants had been detained in operations during the curfew, 25 police officers were injured in security operations and seven guarded police vehicles were damaged as militants carried out attacks with 21 rockets, 19 hand grenades, and two road-side bombings. International media reported as many as 12-20 civilians were reported killed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cizre operation Censorship in Turkey Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) 2015 murders in Turkey Sieges involving Turkey History of Şırnak Province Mass murder in 2015 21st-century mass murder in Turkey Conflicts in 2015 Cizre District 2010s sieges September 2015 in Turkey September 2015 crimes in Asia

Casualties

See also

References