Thousands Kurds in Turkey's southeast displaced, tortured

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – Thousands of Kurds have been displaced from Turkey’s southeastern war-torn areas, while hundreds were tortured after leaving their hometowns, a Turkish TV reported on Thursday.

In a mountainous area called Mount Judi in southeastern Turkey near Syrian and Iraqi borders, about 2,000 Kurds who fled Turkey’s aggression in Nusaybin and Sirnak are living in miserable conditions.

“They are sleeping in the wilderness under tattered tents pitched in the barren rocky valleys,” Turkey’s opposition Dogan News Agency (DHA) reported in Turkish on Thursday.

A Kurdish displaced person from Sirnak who fled to Diyarbakir last week spoke to Kurdistan24 on the condition of anonymity. He testified that Turkish state forces demolished his house and burnt his furniture and other household items.

“[Turkish forces] army destroyed many houses, set fire to properties, tortured my cousin and brother, and then forced us to leave the town,” he said.

Additionally, Netherlands-based Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF), a close associate to the military wing of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), reported on Thursday that state forces set fire to the wood and food silos in Sirnak.

“Several houses were set on fire in Gazipasha, Aydinlikevler, Ismetpasha and Cumhuriyet neighborhoods. Gardens and orchards around Yeni neighborhood were set on fire in the morning by state forces,” ANF reported.

“The food and wood silos in the gardens were also burned one by one,” ANF added.

Regarding the state forces’ assaults, ANF reported that the civilians who evacuated the city last week have been detained and tortured.

“Following the detention, the released civilians had fractures in their arms, hands, fingers, legs and skull and their bodies were covered in bruises,” ANF reported.

Turkey’s southeast has been scorched by violence since a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July. Round-the-clock curfews were instituted in parts of the southeast.

UN deplored Turkish government’s military abuses in the Kurdistan of Turkey, stating that more than 100 people were burned to death while sheltering in basements in Cizre.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Ava Homa