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Burned
to death, beheaded’: Cizre Kurds accuse Erdogan’s forces of
civilian massacre
RT,
11
March, 2016
Harrowing
accounts of an alleged massacre of dozens of Kurdish civilians in the
southeastern Turkish town of Cizre have been collected by RT’s
William Whiteman, who traveled to the area following reports of a
brutal military crackdown on the population.
Reports
of Turkish troops slaughtering hundreds of civilians trapped in the
basements of Cizre, which is located in Turkey’s Sirnak province,
first surfaced in February. Some 150 people were allegedly burned to
death in one of them.
That particular claim was made by Turkish MP Feleknas Uca from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, who spoke to Sputnik agency. These and other trapped people were reportedly denied access to food and medical supplies. However, until now, the alleged atrocities committed by the Turkish forces could not be substantiated on the ground.
Whiteman
found witnesses who survived the offensive and were able to show the
exact place of the mass killing, while providing terrifying details
on what had happened.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Erdogan has destroyed our world. He has burned us,” said a female witness, while showing blood stains on the debris of the deadly building.
RT
‘7 blasts in 10 minutes’ rock pro-Kurdish city #Diyarbakır embattled by #Turkish forces http://on.rt.com/75mn
“Three,
four – maybe five hundred people. There were old people, women and
children – some as young as 10 years old. They killed a heavily
pregnant woman,” added
the woman, blaming Erdogan for indiscriminately killing innocent
people during the so-called counter-terrorism operation against
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists.
“Women
and children lived here. Erdogan killed all of them with heavy
artillery, he destroyed this home,” added
the woman.
“They
claim they are fighting ‘terrorists’ – but where are the
terrorists?” she
said, arguing that all of the victims had been civilians.
While
inspecting the town, Whiteman reported a strong scent of decomposing
bodies. This led him to another chilling discovery – a building
whose basement has served as a mass grave.
Between
45 and 50 people were burned alive in one of the buildings, according
to a local woman speaking to Whiteman. What is worse, many of the
victims appear to have been cold-bloodedly beheaded by the Turkish
troops, she said.
“They [Turkish forces] burned all of them. When we entered this basement we found decapitated bodies,” the witness told Whiteman. “They burned them and beheaded them.”
RT
has submitted the footage shot in Cizre to HRW (Human Rights Watch),
MSF International and MSF Middle East (Médecins Sans Frontières),
the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), the OHCHR
(Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights),
and Amnesty International. The channel asked if the organizations in
question are planning to investigate the claims of Turkish forces'
atrocities against civilians there, and if any statements will be
made.
Ever
since the military operation on the Kurdish population in the Cizre
region began, members of the European Parliament have been addressing
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in open letters and public
speeches, calling on him to put an end to the violence in Turkish
regions inhabited by Kurds.
“The objective of the Erdogan government is to completely have a genocidal campaign against the Kurds, because that’s what’s now occurring,” said Gregory Copley, editor of the journal Defense and Foreign Affairs. “This is now genocide, because the Turkish government has denied that there is any major military operation underway there.”
The
Turkish military has clearly been using “heavy
ground weapons” in
Cizre and “possibly
even air weapons,” he
dded.
‘Erdogan could end up in The Hague for genocide of Kurds’
Commenting
on the violence in Cizre, Kani Xulam, director of the American
Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), accused Erdogan’s government of
war crimes.
“What
the government of Turkey has done in Cizre is a war crime. They have
attacked civilians who have not taken part in the fighting,” Xulam
told RT, stressing that the Turkish military attacked Kurdish
civilians that were not taking part in the fighting. “In
a country that is aspiring to join the European Union and calls
itself a member of NATO, you don’t target a whole town,” the
expert said, adding that the “laws
of war” imply
making a distinction between civilians and belligerents.
Tough Turkey: ‘Kurds fighting for their rights labeled as terrorists’ (Op-Edge) http://on.rt.com/761n
According
to data provided by the Turkish Human Rights Foundation, “178
civilians were deliberately targeted in three different basements and
among some of the dead were children as young as nine to 10 years
old…The government not only deliberately targeted and killed them,
but also burned them. Some relatives were given piles of bones of
their loved ones,” Xulam
said.
Xulam
believes that Ankara’s offensive against the Kurds stems from the
fact that Erdogan wants to be an uncontested“supreme
leader” or “sultan” of
Turkey, which the Kurdish population and its MPs strongly oppose.
According to Xulam, Erdogan’s goal is to make the significant
Kurdish ethnic minority (15 to 30 percent of Turkey’s population by
various estimates) accept “inferior” status
as “subjects,” and
stop demanding language and cultural rights, as well as autonomy.
The
Turkish military operation against PKK militants in the southeastern
part of the country was launched in July 2015, breaking a ceasefire
agreement that had held for two years. At the time of the alleged
mass murder in Cizre, Turkish state television announced that
60 “terrorists” were
killed in a building basement. The operation in Cizre, which,
according to Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala, was completed “in
a very successful fashion,” officially
ended early February.
The
alleged atrocities have brought little reaction from Western
governments, as Turkey is a NATO member state and crucial to stemming
the refugee and migrant crisis gripping Europe.
Most
criticism has come from international human rights groups. Amnesty
International reported in January that at least 150 civilians, women
and children among them, had been killed in the Turkish military
operation, saying that some 200,000 people had been put at risk and
were being denied access to services due to strict curfews.
“
Cuts
to water and electricity supplies combined with the dangers of
accessing food and medical care while under fire are having a
devastating effect on residents, and the situation is likely to get
worse, fast, if this isn’t addressed,” said
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and
Central Asia, as cited in the report.
Pointing
out the lax reaction to the human rights violations committed en mass
by Turkish authorities against the Kurdish population, he urged the
international community not to turn a blind on the conflict.
“While
the Turkish authorities appear determined to silence internal
criticism, they have faced very little from the international
community. Strategic considerations relating to the conflict in Syria
and determined efforts to enlist Turkey’s help in stemming the flow
of refugees to Europe must not overshadow allegations of gross human
rights violations,” he
dded.
Watch a video of this report here:
Syrian Kurds: Turkey Providing ‘Clear Transit Route’ for Sarin Gas Deliveries to ISIS
21st
Century Wire says…
The
Syrian Kurds’ conflict with the Turks seems to be escalating
dramatically.
Watch a video of this report here:
In
an interview
with RT, a spokesman for the Syria’s Kurdish
YPG has accused the Turkish government of providing a ‘clear
transit route’ for sarin gas deliveries to ISIS in Syria:
“Our
sources inside the rebel groups have confirmed that toxic substances
were used,”
“We
also have verified information that sarin gas was delivered to them
from Turkey,”
“All
signs point to the fact that these factions were using banned
weapons, but we cannot access the launching area, as it is located on
the front between the Turkish and rebel forces,”
“This
attack was a failure, but this doesn’t mean that there won’t be
another one. We are convinced the enemy has improvised shells
containing phosphorus and sarin gas.”
The
shells were launched against a Kurdish controlled territory near
Aleppo, emitting an ‘unnatural smell’ and ‘yellow smoke’ upon
impact
Unlike
Iraq, where chemical weapons were nowhere to be found, a vast
array of real hard evidence is available that proves they
have been used by terrorists in Syria.
Interestingly,
the fact the West
once supported these terrorists apparently excuses them from
any ‘international condemnation’ that anyone else would receive,
were they to use chemical weapons.
Furthermore,
Turkey’s support for terrorism in Syria is also widely
documented, so much so that it has even caused a massive
40% drop in the amount of tourists visiting the country this
year
Should
Turkey face sanctions and consequences for its apparent support for
ISIS?
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