It has been 9 years since the curfew declared in Cizîr (Cizre) district of Şirnex (Şırnak) against the people's demand for self-government. With the curfew declared on 14 December 2015, the entire city was blockaded and people were prevented from meeting their basic needs such as water, electricity and communication. During the 79-day curfew, the city was bombed with heavy weapons, civilians were targeted without discriminating between babies and children, and civilians who took shelter in basements were burned to death. 

 

A total of 288 people were massacred, 177 of them in basements. The bodies of those killed especially in the basements were not handed over to their families for months or even years because they could not be identified. Although 9 years have passed, the whereabouts of the bodies of 11 people are unknown. According to the reports prepared by human rights organisations, most of the deaths occurred due to the obstruction of ambulances. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which prepared a report on the curfews in Kurdistan, described the result as an "apocalyptic picture".

 

LAWSUIT APPLICATION

 

While the applications for the prosecution of the perpetrators of the massacred were largely inconclusive, either a permanent search warrant was issued for the perpetrators or a decision of non-prosecution was given in the investigation files. The families, who did not receive a response from the applications to the Constitutional Court, took the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

 

FAMILIES' STRUGGLE

 

Families who lost their relatives during the curfews are as bitter and determined to fight as they were on the first day. Taybet Yılmaz, the mother of 23-year-old Selami Yılmaz, who was wounded during the curfews and died in the basement where he was waiting for an ambulance, stated that she learnt the news of her son's death from television. Taybet Yılmaz stated that she did not hear from her son after the curfews started and then she heard that he was wounded. Taybet Yılmaz reminded that Mehmet Tunç, co-chair of Cizîr People's Assembly, made calls for the wounded in the television programmes he attended. Taybet Yılmaz stated that her son's body was also burnt due to the burning of the basements and that they searched for the body for a long time, and that the body was buried in the cemetery of orphans in Dîlok (Antep), and then they took the body and buried it in their hometown.

 

'WE WILL NOT FORGET THOSE DAYS'

 

Taybet Yılmaz continued as follows: "We didn't have tanks or cannons, the state did. I never saw my son. We saw and experienced every difficulty during the curfews. We were tortured. There was no one here except the state forces. They were saying, 'We have been given orders, you are all Armenians, we have been instructed to destroy you all'. They entered our district with tanks and artillery. We were imprisoned in houses for nearly 3 months. We could not take our heads out of the house. We were hungry and thirsty. We suffered a lot. People with their faces covered came to kill us. My son was wounded and could have been saved, but they did not let us. We will never forget those days as long as we live. We are in the footsteps of our children. I do not believe in the justice of this state. We do not expect justice from those who put us through this."

 

SLAUGHTERED ON THE WAY TO PICK UP THE BODIES

 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Cizîr Municipality Councillor Abdulhamit Poçal was one of the people who remained in the municipality. He was killed when he and then Şirnex MP Faysal Sarıyıldız opened fire on them while they were on Nusaybin Street to collect the bodies of those who had been massacred.

 

Poçal's wife Aslıhan Poçal stated that they had returned to the village because their houses were demolished during the curfew, but her husband stayed in the district in order not to leave the people. Aslıhan Poçal stated that she received the news that her husband was murdered while watching television and that they were prevented from coming to the district for the funeral and that the people there took the body and buried it in Şirnex.

 

They will never forget those days said Aslıhan Poçal and added: "That persecution is always in front of our eyes. I do not believe in the justice of this state. The justice that has not come until today will not come after this. The day innocent and sinless people were massacred, my belief in justice ended. But there is a fact that we will be on the trail of this case."

 

'WE WILL ALWAYS STAND AGAINST OPPRESSION'

 

Mahmut Tetik, the older brother of 35-year-old Ali Tetik, a father of 5 children who was murdered in his house in Cudî neighbourhood, said that even though years have passed, the wounds are still not healed.

 

Tetik said: "My brother had 5 children and was murdered in his house. We did not receive justice from this state. What was done to us should not have been accepted. We will not forget those days. It would be misleading to expect justice in this system. There is no justice in this system. But we will always stand against this persecution and we will not forget this persecution."

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut