Rojda Aydın

 

The curfew declared in Cizre district of Şırnak on December 14, 2015 left five years behind. The curfew imposed between December 14, 2015 and March 1, 2016 was abolished gradually and then completely. During the conflict that lasted for 79 days, 66 YPS(Civil Defense Unity) members died and 213 civilians were killed. Police and soldiers who wanted to break the resistance of the people committed war crimes with heavy weapons and bombing the district. More than 150 people were burned and killed in front of the eyes of the world in the neighborhoods of Cudi and Nur.

 

Nearly 3 thousand houses in the neighborhoods of Yafes, Sur, Cudi and Nur, were unusable and destroyed because of  the heavy weapons used during the operation, . The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights defined what happened in the district as "an apocalyptic picture".

 

The first steps of the curfew

 

On August 13, 2015, the people of Cizre declared self-government by using their right to seal self fate. In response to the declaration of self-government by the people of Cizre, the government started detentions and arrests as part of operations against Kurdish politicians. As response to the operations, YPS(Civil Defense Unity) members established ditches and barricades in Cizre's Sur, Yafes, Nur and Cudi neighborhoods to take their security and prevent operations. On September 4, 2015, after the ditches and barricades, the Şırnak Governorship announced a ‘curfew’ in pretex remove the ditches and barricades and provide  ‘a security environment’ .

 

9 days of curfew

 

On first day of curfew, the people of Cizre started to resist and protect their neighborhood and themselves. Across resistance of the people, the snipers, who were placed in the high buildings that can saw the neighborhoods by the soldiers and police, targeted every alive thing. The women of Cizre pioneered a common life in their neighborhoods in the resistance; they defended their neighborhoods and started making bread in tandouris at night.  The women of Cizre repelled every bomb and bullet with their ululation and handclaps. 22 civilians were killed  in the nine days of  curfew in Cizre. Five of them were children and three of them were women. 

 

According to IHD (Human Rights Association) lawyers, the names of citizens who lost their lives between 4 and 12 September are as follows: Muhammed Tahir Yaramış (35 Günlük), Cemile Çağırga (10), Selman Ağar (10), Bünyamin İrci (14), Mehmet Sait Nayici (16), Özgür Taşkın (18), Meryem Süne (53), Eşref Edin (56), Mehmet Emin Levent (29), Zeynep Taşkın (19), Osman Çağlı (18), Sait Çağdavul (21), Şahin Açık (74), Mehmet Erdoğan (75), Maşallah Edin (35).

 

The names of the citizens who lost their lives but are not presented in the hospital records are as follows: Hacı Ata Borçin (75), Gadban Bülbül (78), Mehmet Dökmen (71), Bahattin Sevinik (50), Suphi Sarak (50), İbrahim Çiçek (79), Mülkiye Geçgel (48).

 

December 14, 2015, at the end of these curfew, both the people's resistance and goverment's attacks reached a completely different dimension.

 

The echos of curfew

 

Message sent by the government to the teachers on December 14 showed that the attacks in Cizre would become more severe. With the message sent by the National Education Directorates about three thousand teachers working in Cizre and Silopi left the districts of Şırnak. The message was: ''All our teachers and administrators have been taken to an in-service training seminar by our ministry on 12.14.2015. Our teachers can take their seminars in their hometown. '' Most of the teachers, whose families lived in other cities, left Silopi and Cizre with this message.

 

A Tradition of Resistance… 

 

During the curfew, during which thousands of people had to migrate, dozens of people, including politicians, journalists and students, Cizre People's Assembly Co-Chairs Mehmet Tunç and Asiye Yüksel were burned  in the basement of the houses while waiting for ambulances. Today, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu forgot the Basements of Cizre and referred to Nazi Germany and said, "But we did not burn anyone in the gas chambers.''  Even though centuries have passed since the curfew, what Mehmet Tunç said will be remembered: “We will not surrender. We will not go out with white flags. We are waiting for death right now. It is a struggle. I am calling out to the Kurdish people. This is a  struggle. It is true, it is a long walk. We all know that this movement will not end with the murder of 100 people. Just as we promised the Hayri, Kemal and Mazlum, just as they did not kneel to personalities like Esad Oktay, we will not kneel to AKP (the ruling party in Turkey) fascism as the people of Cizre.

 

TOKI was built on the funerals

 

With the lifting of the curfew, the buildings where many people lost their lives in the basements were collapsed and new residences were built by the Housing Development Administration (TOKI) above them. The people of the district think that there are still bodies in this this area, which is surrounded by barriers and no one is alow to go inside. Therefore, families whose houses in this area are destroyed refuse to live in this residences. "Our only hope is to find our children's bodies and have a cemetery ' they say.

 

Lost bodies

 

The names of 14 people whose bodies were not found despite the DNA samples given by the families are as follows: Feride Yıldız, Sakine Durmuş, Mardin Çelebi, Hacer Arslan, Osman Gökhan, Hüseyin Derviş, Servet Aslan, İdris Susin, Ali Aslan, Cemal Pürlek, Emrah Aşkan, Osman Esmeray,  Mustafa Keçanlu ve Emrah Aşkın.

 

Files are being closed one by one

 

Investigation files on civilians who lost their lives during the curfew are also closed one by one. Until today a "verdict of non-prosecution" decision has been made for more than 70 files, and a "permanent search decision" has been made for many others... In most of the decisions made with the claim of "members of the organization" the deaths were accepted as "lawful".

 

Unending pressure 

 

It is hard to take breathe in for people of district with  police stations and kalekols built after curfew, the walls built and the blockade continued. Especially young people and children were taken under assimilation. Also, the announcements of the Şırnak Governorship after the ban are not over. In every neighborhood and street corners there are armored vehicles and cops. The placement of mobese cameras on every street draws attention, while the public is almost imprisoned in a open prison.

 

The sale and use of drugs, which do not obey the "strict security measures" applied in the city, also reached worrying proportions after the curfew. It is important that no measures are taken against drug addiction, which is increasing day by day among high school students studying outside of the district center. It is stated that the age of drug use has dicreased to twelve in the district, where almost every street is observed with mobese cameras... The public interprets the occurrence of drug sales and use in Sur, Cudi, Yafes and Nur neighborhoods as "the product of a conscious policy".

 

Unending Resistance

 

In the district where the bans have been increased despite the past 5 years, the resistance and upright stance of the people still continues. The people of Cizre continue their struggle against oppression and assimilation and show that they exist.