Sweden no longer advises against travel to Diyarbakir

She added this decision was taken since the “security situation is judged to have improved.”
The Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast (northern Kurdistan) (Photo: Kurdistan 24).
The Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast (northern Kurdistan) (Photo: Kurdistan 24).

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Swedish Foreign Ministry has decided to longer advise against travel to the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast (northern Kurdistan), the country’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde tweeted on Monday.

Linde added this decision was taken since the “security situation is judged to have improved.”

Read More: 15 people injured in explosion in Kurdish city of Diyarbakir

Nevertheless, the Swedish Foreign Ministry still advises against all travel to places near Turkey’s borders with Iraq and Syria.

Also, the Swedish Foreign Ministry advises “against unnecessary travel to the (Kurdish inhabited) border provinces of Hatay, Kilis, Sirnak and Hakkari in its entirety.”

A peace process and ceasefire between the Turkish authorities and the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) collapsed in July 2015 resulting in urban fighting between the PKK and Turkish armed forces.

According to Crisis Group's fatality tally, last updated on Feb. 3, 2022, at least 5,858 people have been killed in clashes or attacks since July 2015.

Read More: ​​Almost 6,000 people have been killed in the Turkish-PKK conflict since 2015

The conflict brought immense human suffering and infrastructural destruction in several Kurdish provinces, among them Mardin, Diyarbakir, Sirnak, and Hakkari where over 2,000 PKK fighters, members of Turkish government forces, and civilians were killed.

A March 2017 United Nations report documented forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture during, in some cases months-long, round-the-clock curfews in the towns of Nusaybin, Cizre, Sur, Yuksekova, Dargecit, Sirnak, Silopi, Idil, Lice, and Silvan.

According to the ICG, the Turkish-PKK conflict peaked in the winter of 2015-2016, in a number of majority-Kurdish urban districts in Turkey's southeast

Since the 2016 Turkish victory that ended the months-long phase of the urban conflict, the war continues in rural, mountainous areas of northern Kurdistan (Turkey) and the Kurdistan Region.