Report by Diyarbakır Bar on Sur

Click to read the article in Turkish

Preliminary report of Sur-Survey for Child Rights prepared by Diyarbakır Bar Center for Child rights has been released.

The report was prepared by interviewing families and youngsters who have been displaced during conflicts in Sur.

The survey suggests that even though a lot of time has passed over the conflicts, the people some of whom were children at that time are still having psychological issues.

First curfew in Sur was declared with the operation launched to close the ditches on September 6, 2015. According to a report by Chamber of City Planners, 3,569 of 4,985 building was destroyed in Sur.

“68 percent of children have psychological issues”

The information obtained by parents are as follows:

* 71.1 percent of the children go to school whereas 28.9 percent don’t.

* Among the reasons for not going to school, “Sur incidents” constitute 36.6 percent

* 15 percent of the children have special development disorders that require special health and education environments.

* 20 percent of the children have physical disabilities that require again special health and education environments.

* 30 percent of the participants don’t find their children’s general health condition positive.

* Almost all of the participants stated that their children have physical and/or psychological issues, and 68 percent stated that their children have psychological issues.

* Rate of participants who had to live in another place as a result of the conflict process is 15.4 percent.

“50 percent of youngsters were in conflict zones frequently”

According to the telling of people who were aged 16-17 during the conflict process in Sur, prominent findings are as follows:

* 12 percent of the youngsters were assaulted by someone with a gun for at least once, more of them witnessed or heard of it. 2.5 percent of them were assaulted with a gun for more than once.

* 7 percent of the youngsters were assaulted with a gun due to political violence or clashes, 2.4 percent stated that they experienced this a lot.

* 15 percent of the youngsters stated that they were detained in their childhood and it happened more than once. 5 percent of these youngsters stated that they were arrested as a result of the custody process.

* 50 percent of the youngsters stated that they were in conflict zone frequently. They said that 5 percent of the participants were kidnapped or detained during the clashes.

* Majority of the youngsters stated that they were subjected to pepper gas several times whereas a small portion of them said that they were never subjected to it. (BK/TK)