ŞIRNAK -  It has been 6 years since the first curfew in Cizre, in which 21 people were killed, from a 35-day-old baby to an 80-year-old person. Rahmet Erdin, who lost his father during the curfews imposed by Turkey, said, "They told everyone from a two-month-old baby to my 60-year-old father were 'terrorists', but they are not like that."

 

A curfew was imposed in Cizre by the Şırnak Governorate on September 4, 2015. Armoured vehicles flocked to the Nur, Cudi, Sur and Yafes neighborhoods. Cizre, with a population of 150 thousand, was one of the centers where the plan to annihilate the Kurds was prepared after the AKP government ended the peace process following the murder of two police officers in the Ceylanpınar district of Urfa.

 

A SUCCESSFUL OPERATION!

 

The curfew that started at 20.00PM continued until September 12 at 07.00 AM. Şırnak Governorate Ali İhsah Su made a statement and said the 9 day operation was a successful operation and thanked the people of Cizre for their patience. No other information was given about the result of the 'successful operation'.

 

21 CITIZENS WERE MURDERED

 

However 21 citizens including a 35-day-old baby to an 80-year-old man were murdered during that time. The names and ages of the people murdered are as follows:  Mehmet Emin Levent (21), Hacı Ata Borcin (70), Hetban Bülbül (65), Sait Çağdavul (19), Muhammed Tahir Yaramış (35 days old), Cemile Çağrıga (10), Osman Çağlı (18), İbrahim Çiçek (80), Meryem Süne (53), Özgür Taşkın (20), Seyit Eşref Erdin (60), Zeynep Taşkın (18), Maşallah Edin (35), Sayit Nayici (17), Selman Ağar ( 10), Bünyamin İrci (15), Mehmet Dikmen (70), Bahattin Sevinik (50), Suphi Saral (50), Mehmet Erdoğan (75) and Mehmet Emin Açık (70).

 

The body of 10-year-old Cemile Çağırga was kept in a freezer for a week because the family could not go out to bury her. Everytime someone stepped out of their doors, the soldiers were firing at them. Apart from these deaths, the extent of the destruction experienced in the city was revealed with the photographs and videos taken by the journalists. 16 people including Cemile Çağırga and baby Muhammed who were placed in small coffins, were buried in the district with a funeral attended by thousands on the day the curfew was lifted.

 

While the phone lines and electricity was cut with the curfew, the water tanks on the roofs of the houses were destroyed by the bullets of the law enforcement units.  It was reflected in the reports prepared by the Human Rights Institutions after the ban that most of the people who lost their lives, lost their lives because the ambulances were not allowed to pick up the wounded.

 

BULLET MARKS

 

It is possible to see what happened during the curfew, which lasted 6 years, in the bullet marks on the walls of some houses that were saved from demolition. The tragedy is still fresh in the memories of the people, especially those who lost loved ones. Eşref Erdin, one of the 21 people who lost their lives during the curfew, was shot by snipers on the evening of September 9 while he was going to check the water tank on the roof of his house. Saying that he remembers what happened like it was yesterday, Edin's daughter, Rahmet Erdin, talked about those days.

 

HE WENT UP TO THE ROOF WHEN THE WATER WAS OUT 

 

Stating that bullets came like rain the minute the curfew started and they could not step out of the house, Erdin said: "My father went out to the roof of our house around 23.00 to check the water thank when we ran out of water. We went to check up on him when he did not show up for an hour and saw that he was injured."

 

'THEY ALLOWED THE PASSAGE OF THE AMBULANCE'

 

Stating that they carried him to the yard when they saw he was injured, Erdin said: "We called the ambulance but they told they could not come because of the curfew and armed clashes. We informed the police and tried to take my father to the hospital with our own car but they started firing at us at the corner of our street. Our car was hit three times. We came back home. They didn't let us take my father to a hospital or send an ambulance. My father died around 5 in the morning."

 

'WE WILL NEVER LET IT GO'

 

What hurt Erdin most was the fact that his father and the others killed during the curfews were not considered to be 'civillians'. Ergin said: "They killed 21 people. From a 2-month-old baby to my 80-year-old father. They called them terrorists. But that is not the truth. Ergin told that even though they haven't get any results yet in the investigation that has been going on for 6 years, they will never let it go."

 

 

MA / Müjdat Can