Biography
born: 1998, Mersin
Date
07.-12. February 2016
Place
Cizre, South-Eastern Turkey
Description
On December 14, 2015, a 78-day curfew was imposed in the Cizre district of Sirnak as part of the military victories. During this period at least 280 people were killed by police and military. In 262 cases, the identities of the victims could be established, another 18 people are still buried in the cemetery of the nameless. In days of February 7 to 12 2016, 137 people lost their lives in the cellars of three buildings.
Several people from the cellars tried to call for help over the phone and contacted HDP members of parliament, the media and even the European Parliament. They reported that they had taken refuge in the cellars with other survivors in order to seek shelter. They also reported that murdered people were in the cellars who had not survived the attacks. They pointed out that the Turkish military bombed the building they were in and called for immediate medical help to get them to the hospital. Their calls were then relayed to the emergency call centers 112 and 115. But because they didn’t receive help, all people in those cellars were massacred in the cruellest way by the Turkish state. February 7, 2016 marks one of the cruellest episodes of these attacks. Turkish security forces diverted gasoline into a basement where dozens of people were locked up and burned them alive.
After this horrific mass execution of the people and the destruction of the buildings, the Turkish state had several TOKI buildings built on the ruins to prevent the collective memory of the cruel massacre in the cellars of Cizre.
Current situation
In Turkey, the processes on this case are not progressing. As an alternative, the ECHR has been called upon, but the application has been rejected. On March 2018 HDP published a report on the incidents in Cizre: https://de.scribd.com/document/373008068/Cizre-Report-in-English-5th-March2018#from_embed
