‘We will not forget the rights violations in Hakkari’

Click to read the article in Turkish

Releasing a written statement, the Hakkari Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) has reminded the authorities and the public of the curfew which was declared in Kurdish-majority Hakkari's Yüksekova district on March 13, 2016 and remained in force for 79 days.

The statement has noted that "despite the 6 years that have passed, the effects of the destruction caused by this period of curfews are still visible".

The İHD Hakkari Branch has first recalled that with an announcement made by the Governor's Office of Hakkari in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey, a curfew was declared in Yüksekova district center starting from March 13, 2016 at 10 pm and a curfew was declared in its Vezirli Village and Çimenli Hamlet starting from March 30, 2016 at 10 pm.

Following these curfews declared until further notice, entries and exits to and from the Vezirli Village and Çimenli Hamlet were also forbidden.

The statement has noted that "this inhumane decision of curfews was implemented in the district center and some affiliated areas for 79 days, a climate of war was maintained in the district and the houses, workplaces, schools and mosques of the locals were completely destroyed".

The association has also recalled that "in this period when human dignity was disregarded, local people were evicted from their houses and forced to migrate to neighboring provinces".

The İHD Hakkari Branch has further underlined that "while it was declared on May 30, 2016 that the curfews were lifted, they actually continued to be partly implemented as people were banned from going out after 8 pm, thereby turning the district center into almost a ghost town".

Recalling that "the decision to impose the curfew was given without declaring any state of emergency or martial law and without the district sub-governor being authorized to give such a decision and that the curfew remained in force for 79 days," the association has defined this chain of events as "a disaster that has no equivalence in the domestic or international regulations and where human rights and people's fundamental rights such as the right to life and right to property were disregarded".

'No effective investigation'

Referring to the aftermath of the curfew in Yüksekova, the İHD Hakkari Branch has recalled that a delegation from the İHD and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) went there on June 4, 2016, made observations and prepared a report based on their observations.

Citing the findings in the ensuing report, the association has indicated that "in the conflicts that took place in Yüksekova during the curfews, 78 deceased bodies were referred to the Erzurum Forensic Medicine Institution, 25 deceased bodies were handed over to their families after being identified and 53 deceased bodies were laid to rest in the cemetery of the nameless". Following DNA tests, three people buried in the common grave were reportedly also handed over to their families.

Accordingly, the İHD Hakkari Branch has said, "These irrecoverable losses are an open indication of how massive the conflict and destruction were and how human life was disregarded by the state itself".

Further in its statement, the association has reiterated that "despite the 6 years that have passed since then, the effects of the destruction caused by this period of curfews are still visible" in Yüksekova.

At this point, it has recalled that "after the curfews were ended, a cabinet decree declaring 7 neighborhoods of Yüksekova as risky areas was published in the Official Gazette on August 10, 2016. "With this decree, it is officially recognized that 7 neighborhoods in Hakkari province's Yüksekova district were completely destroyed," the İHD Hakkari has said.

The association has also raised concerns that the people of the region were displaced as nearly 15 thousand residences were damaged and people were rendered unable to live in their own properties.

Referring to the expropriations and the construction of buildings by the state's Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ), the İHD Hakkari has also underlined that "people were forced to live away from their culture and history by being forced to migrate to other provinces".

"During this destruction, several species were destroyed and irrecoverably harmed," the association has added further.

'We will not forget the destruction'

The İHD Hakkari Branch has raised concerns about impunity as well. According to the statement, "no effective investigation has been carried out into the continuous curfews that were unlawfully implemented and the conflicts that ensued the curfews" in Yüksekova district.

It has further stressed that "with expropriation and declaration of disaster zones, the evidence that could have been obtained for an effective investigation was spoiled and the people of Yüksekova were made to go through an unprecedented treatment and human rights violations".

Noting that the soldiers were also not put on trial over the violations that they committed and it was not investigated from whom they had received the instruction of torture, the İHD Hakkari Branch has reiterated that it will not forget the destruction that happened in the region. (EMK/AÖ/SD)