ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has criticized Turkey for failing to safeguard “the life and integrity” of a wounded Kurdish boy, who died after police refused to allow ambulance workers entry to a curfew zone in the town of Cizire. Huseyin Paksoy, 16, died four days after he was wounded in the foot after his family home was allegedly bombed by the special operation police on January 14, according to his brother’s statement to the Turkish media. Mesut Paksoy told media outlets on Sunday that authorities prevented ambulance workers from entering the neighborhood where his injured brother was waiting for help. Huseyin died only hours after the court had ruled on the matter, according to Mesut, who said the life of his brother could have been saved if police had allowed the ambulance to enter the district. “Huseyin was wounded after our home in Cizire was targeted by artillery. I immediately dialed 112, but they said I should first contact the police and I did, but the first ambulance came four days later on January 18,” Mesut told local media on Sunday. “The Court has given the decisions of interim measures regarding the Turkish government in responsibility of right to life and the right to protect the physical integrity” of Paksoy, who died on January 18, an ECHR ruling states. This is the ECHR’s second ruling regarding the curfews in Turkey’s Kurdish cities, where an estimated 1.5 million people in 19 Kurdish districts are subject to the military curfews. Around 10,000 Turkish military personnel have been deployed in the curfew zones, where daily clashes between guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish army have claimed hundreds of dead, including 162 civilians, according to Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TIHV). According to TIHV, of the 162 civilians who died in the clashes, 32 were children, 29 were women and 24 were above the age of 60. A new round of clashes started in July last year when a peace accord between the PKK and Ankara ended violently, with both sides accusing the other of undermining the terms of the previous agreement. At least 200,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been displaced since the fighting began, according to the Migrants Association for Social Cooperation and Culture (Goc-Der). “The international community will not be silent forever,” the Turkish political author Cunaid Olsagar told Rudaw in a phone interview about the ECHR ruling. “The Court’s ruling is a starting point which puts pressure on Turkey about the curfews and the indiscriminate killings,” Olsagar said.
