Turkey questioned over curfew in Kurdish town

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) asked Turkey on Friday to present a statement of defense over an ongoing weeks-long curfew in the Kurdish town of Cizre in Sirnak Province.

On December 29, two Kurdish lawyers of the Bar Associations of the cities of Batman and Diyarbakir appealed to the ECtHR in a preliminary application on behalf of Omer Elci, a resident of Cizre whose life, they say, is under threat.

One of the lawyers, Erkan Senses of Batman told K24 on Saturday, in an online messaging service, that the European court gave the government of Turkey until January 8 to submit a defense.

Senses stated that his client has been "inhumanely confined to house arrest with no court order" for almost three weeks due to the curfew imposed by authorities.

The lawyer said he and Neset Girasun of the Diyarbakir Bar also provided the Strasbourg-based court a fact sheet of civilian deaths and the fact that the Turkish Army and police were employing heavy weaponry, including tanks and mortars in residential areas, thus putting civilian lives, including that of his client, at risk.

He said they demanded a removal of the curfew, a halt to military operations and an injunction from the court meant to stop human rights violations.

The court asked Turkey for a legal justification of the curfew order in the beleaguered town, revealed Senses. Dozens of civilians have been killed in clashes, alongside hundreds of Turkish soldiers, police, and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) affiliates.

If Omer Elci wins the case, the ECtHR may demand Turkey to lift the curfew and limit the scope of its military operations in a binding decision.

Earlier, on December 28, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) had filed a complaint to the ECtHR against Turkey over curfews in several Kurdish towns. The lawsuit was filed by the HDP Deputy Co-Chair Meral Danis Bestas, who said in her complaint that the curfews had no legal ground.