Aren’t we going to question “why did these 1552 people die”?

Aren’t we going to question  “why did these 1552 people die”?

The Diyarbakır Branch of Human Rights Association (İHD) has just released a new report, publishing the results of the last year war between the Turkish government and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).

According to İHD’s report, between 24 July 2015-24 July 2016, 1552 people died during the war. 422 of these people were security forces (soldiers, police, village guards), 622 of them were PKK militants. 320 of these people were civilians. 75 of the civilians were children.

34 civilians lost their life due to PKK bombings. The majority of the remaining civilians (286 people) were killed by state security forces. A number of these 286 people died because of not reaching health services due to curfew.

440 deaths were extrajudicial killings.

This year, there were 105 curfews in 35 towns surrounding 9 Kurdish cities. In some cities, the curfew continued for months. In my city, Diyarbakır Suriçi, today is the 303^rd day of the curfew!

This year, Turkey has also declared special security zones in rural areas of the Kurdish Region. The special security zones have been declared 87 times and have covered more than one hundred rural areas.

According to the report, in the past year, torture, mistreatment and cases of detention have increased in Kurdish areas.  In the last year, 7884 people were detained in the Kurdish Region. 275 detainees were children.

If we look at the results of one year of war:

Thousands of people were killed.

Kurdish cities were destroyed and burnt.

Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.

More than 355.000 people were forced out of their homes.

Detention, torture, people burnt to death, racism, nationalist graffiti on our walls, discrimination, dead bodies left on the streets…

One year later. Today we know that the PKK did not launch the war. Today we know that the PKK is not responsible for the killing of 2 policemen in Ceylanpınar (this event has been linked to the breakdown of the 2 year long peace process). Last month the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) presented a parliamentary bill to investigate these killings. The bill was refused due to the votes of AKP (Justice and Development Party) and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party).

Aren’t we going to ask who launched the war?

Aren’t we going to ask why Silvan, Sur, Şırnak, Yüksekova, Nusaybin, Cizre were destroyed?

Aren’t we going to ask why there is racist graffiti on our walls?

Aren’t we going to ask  the rights of the thousands of citizens who have lost their homes?

Aren’t we going to ask why did these 1552 people die?

Nurcan Baysal

28.09.2016, Diyarbakır