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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish party and its human rights foundation reported Sunday that more than 160 civilians, including women, were killed in the fallout of clashes and curfews by Turkish authorities in the country’s Kurdish southeast.
According to a report by the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey imposed a string of curfews on several Kurdish cities and towns, resulting in the deaths of 161 civilians, 30 of them women.
"The besieging of seven Kurdish cities and 20 townships and storming civilian homes for 280 days is still ongoing, and they (Turkey) has constantly renewed curfews 56 times and they are still in place," the report read.
The Turkish Human Rights Foundation, meanwhile, reported that between August and January, 162 civilians have been killed in confrontations between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army during curfews in Turkey’s Kurdish cities.
"The report puts special emphasis on human rights violations after Dec. 11, 2015 and says that civilians' lives have been hugely affected by the way curfews are imposed, the size of areas implicated, increasing military crackdowns and the hardened discourse by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government," the Turkish Sunday's Zaman reported.
It added that more than "260 members of the security forces have been killed in clashes with the PKK since a cease-fire negotiated by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the government collapsed in July."
Ongoing clashes between the Turkish army and residents of Turkey's southeastern Kurdish cities have displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and led to the deaths of hundreds,
The Turkish army declared a series of military curfews in several neighborhoods of the Kurdish district of Sur in Turkey’s Diyarbakir province in early December. Since then, clashes have been underway, with dozens of civilians and policemen reportedly killed and wounded.
Thousands of people have fled Sur district in recent weeks, with the area under a tough curfew for a month. Clashes have been ongoing.
People across Kurdish cities in Turkey have protested against the curfew in Sur, calling for an end to the hostilities, according to reports.
Turkish media reports say that more than 100 people are believed to have been killed and 100,000 others displaced.
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