Harrowing accounts of the alleged massacre of dozens of Kurdish civilians in the Turkish town of Cizre have emerged, as Ankara continues its crackdown on Kurdish fighters in the country's southeast, coupled with shelling Kurds’ positions in Syria and bombing them in Iraq.
10 May 2016
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Turkish border guards are continuing to shoot and abuse Syrian refugees, and has urged Ankara to investigate. It has also called on Turkey to re-open its borders, despite Ankara claiming that it has an open-door policy for migrants.
06 April 2016
Four civilians were killed after their house was bombed in the Kurdish city of Silopi, Turkey, the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reported. The shelling by Ankara forced many residents to flee the area, according to social media reports.
05 April 2016
A curfew has been declared in another town inhabited by Kurds in southeast Turkey. Silopi came under curfew following an attack by Kurdish militants on a police convoy that left one dead and four injured.
About 100 children and 96 women have died since July 2015, during the new spike in the conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish nationals, reports RIA Novosti, citing a bulletin from the Turkish Democratic Peoples’ Party (HDP).
The Turkish military has inflicted airstrikes in northern Iraq on targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The airstrikes were delivered in Iraqi Kurdistan's remote mountainous Qandil region, the principle base of the PKK. The Turkish army reported the strikes eliminated various PKK installations, among them weapon stores and hideouts.
29 March 2016
Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have kidnapped a Turkish official, Salih Zeki Cetinkaya, Turkish media report. He was abducted on Tuesday while on his way from Erzurum to Sanliurfa province after his car was stopped by Kurdish militants and his identification revealed.
“The kidnapping occurred as Cetinkaya was traveling with his brother and another person from Erzurum to Sanliurfa,” the party's Erzurum provincial president, Fatih Yesilyurt said, as reported by Anadolu news agency.
“The [fighters] released Cetinkaya's brother and the third person, taking Cetinkaya with them. Cetinkaya's brother and the third person are at the Duru Gendarmerie Station of Lice town in Diyarbakır province,” he added.
Cetinkaya is the head of the Turkish AK (Justice and Development) Party for the district of Ispir. The party is the largest in Turkey and has a majority in parliament. Its former head is the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
28 March 2016
The curfew imposed in the Turkish towns of Cizre and Silopi has been mildly relaxed, as reported by Turkish news outlet Milliyet.
Under new regulations, the curfew will be in place from 9:30pm to 4:30am local time.
A written statement from the governor of Sirnak stated as follows:
“Cities of Cizre and Silopi are the center of the separatist terrorist organization. To neutralize its members and protect our citizens’ lives, we impose a partial curfew to be applied on Monday, March 28, from 9:30 in the evening to 4:30 in the morning.”
The previous regulations applied in Silopi on January, 19 imposed a curfew from 6pm to 5am local time, while in Cizre, starting on March, 2, the curfew was in action from 7:30pm to 5am local time.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkish security forces have neutralized 5,359 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) within the country and beyond its borders since July 2015, while more than 350 servicemen have lost their lives.
“Since the beginning of the anti-terror operation in July last year, we lost 355 people to date - including 215 soldiers, 133 policemen and seven security guards, but we will not leave the shedding of the blood of our heroes unpunished. During the same period within the country and abroad we neutralized, injured or captured 5,359 extremists,” Erdogan said while speaking at a military academy, as reported by Anadolu news agency.
He added that Ankara will continue its crackdown on the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organization in Turkey. “Despite the fact that terrorists are receiving support from abroad, […] we will continue to walk our way without compromising,” he said.
Representatives of the pro-Kurdish People's Party claim that hundreds of civilians have been killed since the army began its crackdown on the Kurds.
25 March 2016
18 villages and townships in the Silvan district of Diyarbakar have been given curfews, which took effect today at 11:00am local time, Turkish media report.
24 March 2016
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the British House of Commons has called on the UK Foreign Office to put pressure on Turkey to stop the attacks on Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a report issued on Thursday said.
“The UK must press Turkey to refrain from taking any further action against YPG forces and play a constructive role towards shared objectives in the defeat of ISIL [Islamic State, IS, Daesh, formerly ISIS],” the document said, according to Sputnik.
“It is not acceptable for the UK, in return for Turkish co-operation on EU migration priorities as per the deal agreed on March 18, to turn a blind eye towards the brutal Turkish government suppression of legitimate Kurdish aspirations at home and in neighboring states," it added.
The director of the OSCE Office for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has declined to comment on RT’s findings concerning the alleged Cizre massacre by Turkish forces.
“ODIHR has not been involved in monitoring the situation in southeast Turkey, and thus would have no direct information on which to base any comment,” it said in a response.
The absence of comments from the UN high commissioner for human rights on the alleged massacre in the town of Cizre is “puzzling,” Maria Zakharova, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said.
After the ministry examined the materials provided by RT on the Cizre events, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent a letter to the high commissioner for human rights, she said.
“We expect that in the foreseeable future evaluation will be given [to what happened in the mainly-Kurdish town]. The tragedy, in which 150 people were burned alive, shouldn’t be ignored,” Zakharova stressed.
RT’s petition on Change.org: We urge UNHRC to investigate alleged mass killing of Kurds in Turkey
The British government must not allow concerns over the EU’s need for Turkish support on the refugee issue to prevent it from putting pressure on Ankara to stop attacks on Kurdish forces, the Foreign Affairs Committee has said in a report.
“The UK must press Turkey to refrain from taking any further action against YPG [People’s Protection Unit] forces and play a constructive role towards shared objectives in the defeat of ISIL,” said the report, which provides an overview of British involvement in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
“It is not acceptable for the UK, in return for Turkish cooperation on EU migration priorities as per the deal agreed on 18 March, to turn a blind eye towards the brutal Turkish government suppression of legitimate Kurdish aspirations at home and in neighboring states, which is almost certainly illegal and involves a grossly disproportionate use of force,” the document added.
23 March 2016
Sevim Dagdelen, a German MP from the Left Party, a spokesperson on International Relations of the Left Party and member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Bundestag, has called for “a prompt and extensive international investigation into the allegations” of mass and grave human rights violations in Turkey’s southeast.
“For weeks [President Recep Tayyip] Erodgan’s army has been waging a war against its own population in the Turkey’s southeast,” she told RT via email, referring to the Turkish military crackdown on Kurds.
Dagdelen condemned German government, the EU and NATO for “being silent and striking a deal with the belligerent president” aimed at returning refugees to Turkey as “cities are under siege and under shelling” and “hundreds of thousands of Kurds are now on the run.”
She also stressed that Erdogan “is responsible for war crimes and arming Islamist terrorist gangs in Syria” and should not be negotiated with in Brussels, but be questioned at the Hague Tribunal instead.
The Left Party spokesperson also said that the party “is concerned with new reports about paramilitary special forces that terrorize the Kurdish population in Cizre and elsewhere” and “should be held responsible for the killing of civilians.”
21 March 2016
Andrew Gardner, Turkey expert with Amnesty International, has told RT that since the Turkish Army began its operation against Kurdish militia in December, there has been an escalation of violence and “clear use of heavy weaponry” in residential areas.
“There is clear evidence that young children, elderly people, people who clearly were not fighters, not armed, they have been killed,” Gardner said. “There are many questions to be answered here.”
He noted that “unfortunately, we haven’t seen that any of these allegations have been effectively investigated.”
20 March 2016
The Kurdish people have become a key element in the Middle-Eastern turmoil, viewed as allies by the US and Iraq and enemies by key US regional ally Turkey. One of the world’s largest ethnic groups without a state, they have a long and turbulent history.
At least 10 people were arrested after Turkish police broke up Kurdish Newroz (the Persian New Year) festivities in the town of Silopi. Officers deployed water cannon to disperse the crowd of several hundred who had assembled in defiance of Ankara’s ban on mass gatherings amid a crackdown on Kurdish militants. The celebration was been organized by the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party, local media has reported.
19 March 2016
Turkish government forces killed 10 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters on Thursday, the Turkish General Staff said on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports. The military said five PKK fighters were killed in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, four – in in the Yuksekova district of Hakkari as well as one more – in Sirnak province. The General Staff added that several home-made explosive devices were disposed of and weapons seized.
Following RT's appeal to investigate the claims of alleged atrocities committed against civilians in southeastern Turkey, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) said speaking publicly of "extreme acts of violence" is "not the primary mission of the organization."
"Regarding the situation in south east Turkey, MSF does not have a team in the area, thus do not have the capacity to assess the situation on the ground," the international humanitarian-aid NGO's representative in Turkey, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa told RT in a written statement.
"MSF's principle is not to comment on any situation without directly bearing witness and MSF not being a human rights organization, does not conduct such investigation," its representative added, saying that the organization has received the reports of the situation in southeastern Turkey and "is concerned about the reports of population not being able to reach medical assistance."
Cizre Kurds have accused Turkish forces of carrying out a civilian massacre. They allege that 150 people were burnt to death in a basement, and civilians were denied access to food and medical supplies. RT’s Neil Clark has analyzed the situation in the region, endeavoring to shed light on what lies at the core of the current hostilities.
RT has gathered the five most dramatic videos from Turkey's operation against the Kurds, showing the intensity of Ankara's crackdown and the destruction it has left behind.
18 March 2016
The Support Center for Russia-Armenia Relations has endorsed the initiative and published RT’s footage and report on its website.
Contacted by RT again, Amnesty International has said they will look into the petition launched by the channel calling to investigate the crackdown on Kurds in Turkey’s southeast.
“We will be happy to comment on this issue once we issue more up-to-date research findings,” RT has been told.
In other comments, Amnesty International says that they are actively monitoring the situation in the southeastern Turkey and that they have repeatedly urged Ankara to put an end to its aggressive policy imposed in the region.
“In recent months Amnesty International urged the Turkish government to put an end to all restrictions on travelling, including curfews and to policy, which have deprived the people of medical aid, food supplies, water, and electricity,” an Amnesty International spokesman told TASS.
Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has urged Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to carry out a thorough and impartial investigation into the Kurds' plight in the city of Cizre and Sur district in southeastern Turkey. She says she was shocked by the recent RT report which shed light on the crimes committed by Turkey.
“We presume that all reports, particularly, documentary ones, which shed light on the blatant and massive violations of human’s rights and international law, have to be thoroughly investigated. For these purposes, there exist special international procedures and mechanisms. Essential is the fact, that they have to be used impartially and objectively,” Zakharova said in an official comment published on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
From devastation and despair in Diyarbakir to the indefinite curfew in Yuksekova, RT has mapped out Ankara’s anti-Kurd military operation in the country’s southeast.
Cynthia McKinney, former US congresswoman, says that Turkey’s suppression of the Kurdish population creates serious grounds upon which to accuse Ankara of genocide. Ankara needs to reconsider its policy and grant recognition to the Kurds, she said.
"If Turkey doesn't want the Kurdish ‘card’ played against it, it should render Kurdish complaints moot by changing its policies so that Turkish Kurds are accorded recognition and the dignity and respect experienced by other Turkish citizens. Turkey's failure to do so, choosing instead to massacre Kurds living within its borders, places Turkey in breach of international law for crimes against humanity and under serious scrutiny for genocide," she told RT.
17 March 2016
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has urged Ankara to stop the violence in Turkey’s south-eastern regions and reinvigorate dialogue with the Kurds to find a political solution to the crisis.
Despite Turkish authorities announcing the end of the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’ in the country’s Kurdish regions, “the level of violence, unfortunately, isn’t decreasing,” Maria Zakharova, ministry spokeswoman, said at a briefing in Moscow.
Russia is confident that a dispute between Turkey and Kurds “can only be solved in the political plain,” she added.
Peter Ford, British Ambassador to Syria, has slammed the West for closing its eyes to the crimes committed by the Turkish government and applying “double standards”.
“It is deplorable that Erdogan should be massacring his own people in the manner documented in the harrowing RT report on the Kurds of Cizre. Almost equally deplorable is the silence in this matter on the part of the British government and other Western governments and institutions who fall over themselves to denounce alleged violations against the people of Syria attributed to President Assad. The double standard being applied here is sickening,” he told RT.
A Turkey-based militant group named Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) has reportedly claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in the Turkish capital, Ankara, which claimed 37 lives, according to a statement on the group's website cited by Reuters. The group previously claimed responsibility for a separate car bombing, also in Ankara, which killed 29 people last month. The TAK's statement said that the Sunday suicide car attack was a "vengeance" for Turkish security operations in Kurdish-populated areas in the southeast that have resulted in hundreds of casualties among civilians, security troops and militants since July 2015. It also vowed to continue reciprocal attacks in future.
RT has launched a petition under the hashtag #JusticeForKurds calling for a UNHRC-led investigation into claims of the alleged massacre of Kurdish civilians.
“RT traveled to Cizre to get first-hand accounts from witnesses. They showed us the site of the alleged mass killing. RT filmed the destroyed buildings, including bloodstains on the debris, and shell casings. A witness told us that among the victims were women, and children as young as ten years old,” the petition states.
The channel said it had contacted Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, ICRC and other international organizations and shared the materials with them, but none of them commented substantively, citing a variety of reasons.
16 March 2016
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for an investigation into reports of massive human rights abuse in south-eastern Turkey against Kurdish nationals.
“Any reports, particularly those documented ones, about rude and large scale human rights abuse and violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated. There are special international procedures for that,” Lavrov said, answering RT’s question.
Dr. Nidal Kabalan, former Syrian ambassador to Turkey blames the Turkish president for undermining the truce, saying that his aggressive policy was not just aimed against the Kurds, but against his whole country.
“Turkish operations, airstrikes targeting PKK are a much wider aggression against civil population, it is the outcome of Erdogan’s policies against freedom in Turkey, jailing of journalists is also about that. There were some initiatives to calm down Kurdish opposition, but truce collapsed due to Erdogan, and new aggression,” he told RT.
15 March 2016
Three militants and a police officer have been reportedly killed in clashes in Diyarbakir. Witnesses told Reuters that the clashes took place overnight while a police helicopter flew overhead. The fighting came as a curfew was imposed on the city.
14 March 2016
Turkey's military has confirmed that Turkish warplanes have bombed camps belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. A total of 11 fighter jets were involved in the operation, and some 18 targets were hit, the military said in a statement.
Turkey’s officials blamed Kurdish militants for the Ankara car bombing attack within just hours after the incident, Reuters reports. The suicide car bombing attack that hit the Turkish capital on March 13 claimed the lives of 34 people and left 125 more injured, according to the Turkish health ministry.
According to Turkish security officials, the perpetrators of the attack were linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as reported by Reuters. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkish authorities had "very serious and almost certain" evidence proving that the PKK was responsible. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
13 March 2016
More 24-hour curfews for mostly Kurdish-populated towns in the east of Turkey have been declared by the Turkish authorities, while reports have emerged of dozens of trucks carrying security forces heading to the area.
New curfews will be imposed on the town of Yuksekova, Hakkari province, on the border with Iran, and on Nusaybin, a town in Mardin Province, on the border with Syria.
12 March 2016
RT’s appeal to international human rights organizations to investigate the claims of alleged atrocities committed against civilians by the Turkish military in the town of Cizre located in southeastern Turkey has been generally ignored, with the channel receiving little or no reply.
Amnesty International emailed RT to say that they “will not be able to comment on this at this time and must decline your offer.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that their Turkish researchers “are still looking into the allegations, but are not available to comment at present.”
The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s office in Geneva offered only a press-release dated February 1, while the Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) organization has given no reply at all, as of yet.
Turkey’s Air Forces have conducted air strikes against the strongholds of the Kurdish militia on the territory of neighboring Iraq killing 67 militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), various media reported citing the Turkish army sources. 14 F-16 and F-4 fighter jets participated in the assault, bombing PKK camps, arms depots and bunkers, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported citing unnamed security source. The airstrikes took place on March 9, according to the agency.
RT has taken an exclusive look into the mass killings of civilians allegedly committed by the Turkish military in the city of Diyarbakır mostly inhabited by Turkish Kurds. RT's William Whiteman talked to the relatives of the victims.
11 March 2016
RT demonstrates the destruction in the Kurdish town of Cizre after a Turkish military crackdown in an exclusive video.
RT’s William Whiteman has collected harrowing accounts of an alleged massacre of dozens of Kurdish civilians in the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre and presented them in an exclusive RT report. Whiteman found witnesses who survived the offensive and were able to show the exact place of the mass killing, while providing terrifying details about what had happened.
RT has submitted their footage from Cizre to HRW (Human Rights Watch), MSF International (Médecins Sans Frontières) and MSF Middle East, 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 the organizations in question if they planned to investigate claims that atrocities had been inflicted on civilians by Turkish forces in Cizre, and if they intended to issue any statements regarding the alleged massacre.
RT has collected harrowing accounts of an alleged massacre of dozens of Kurdish civilians in the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre.
RT’s William Whiteman found survivors of the Turkish military offensive, who showed the reporter the exact place where the mass killings allegedly took place and provided the reporter with terrifying details as to what had happened.
10 March 2016
Turkey allegedly provided Syrian anti-government militants with a clear transit route for chemical weapons, including sarin gas, which were subsequently used against Syrian Kurds near the city of Aleppo, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia told RT.
The attackers targeted a civilian district of the city controlled by Kurds with shells that emitted an “unnatural smell” and “yellow smoke” upon impact, indicating that chemical weapons were involved, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told RT.
07 March 2016
Turkey continues to shell Syrian Kurds in breach of the ceasefire that came into force in Syria on February 27. Several YPG members were wounded as Turkish shells hit the town of Tel Rifaat, Redur Xelilm YPG official, told Reuters.
Residents of Kurdish-controlled towns in Syria, attacked by the Turkish military, spoke to RT’s Lizzie Phelan of their misery on the front line.
06 March 2016
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of London to express their outrage over Ankara’s military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) both in Turkey and beyond its borders.
The protest, which included both Kurds and non-Kurdish supporters, was organized by an activist group known as Stop War on Kurds.
READ MORE: London rally condemns Turkey’s ‘war on Kurds’, UK media silence (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
04 March 2016
Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists receive regular supplies from Turkey, Syrian Kurdish forces told RT’s Lizzie Phelan. An RT crew has filmed a number of vehicles coming through the Bab al-Salam crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border, on the outskirts of the northern town of Azaz, which is partially controlled by Al-Nusra, according to reports.
Head of the YPG in Afrin, Abdu Ibrahim, says Turkey is definitely providing support for terrorist groups in the area. “The ammo we found in their warehouses – closed boxes of ammo – they were closed and stamped by the Turkish government. We even found clearance documents to allow [the boxes of ammo] cross the borders which proved that they were approved to cross the borders," he told RT.
At least two police officers were killed and 35 people injured when a car bomb exploded in the town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.
03 March 2016
A Turkish assault helicopter conducting air strikes against alleged PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan had been shot down by the Kurds. Turkish officials have made no comment on the incident.
02 March 2016
The city of Diyarbakir, which has been under curfew since December of 2015, saw hundreds of people march through its Sur district to protest the violent Turkish crackdown in the country’s southeast.
READ MORE: Turkish police tear-gas Kurds protesting crackdown in country’s southeast
Some protesters threw stones and fireworks at police, Germany’s DPA reported. Police reacted violently and dispersed the crowds with plastic and rubber bullets, as well as tear gas and water cannon. Thirty-three people were arrested at the protests, Reuters reported.
28 February 2016
Within 10 minutes, at least seven blasts rocked the Sur district of Diyarbakır, the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast, pro-Kurdish news agency DIHA reported.
About 200 civilians were caught in the bombing, the report added, without specifying what had happened to them or whether there had been any casualties.
Reports have emerged claiming that Turkish forces have been shelling the Kurdish town of Tell Abyad in northern Syria using heavy artillery, despite a ceasefire being in effect that applies to all parties in the Syrian conflict, excluding hardcore Islamist fighters, such as IS and Nusra Front militants.
The Russian ceasefire monitoring center near Latakia says it is working to verify the reports.
19 February 2016
RT has obtained footage from the city of Cizre in Turkey's southeast, where the military reportedly let “more than 150 people” burn to death. They were allegedly trapped in the ruins of buildings destroyed during the army hunt for PKK fighters, as member of the Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party stated.
More than 150 people trapped in basements in Turkey’s southeast were “burned alive” by the Turkish military, a Turkish MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party claimed.
“In the Cizre district of Sirnak, around 150 people have been burned alive in different buildings by Turkish military forces. Some corpses were found without heads. Some were burned completely, so that autopsy is not possible,” Feleknas Uca told Sputnik, adding that “most” of those killed were Kurds.
The MP said in his statement that more than 200 people remain trapped inside buildings throughout the region, while warning that more people could face a similar fate.
This information has not been confirmed by RT on the ground, or independently verified by a third party.
18 February 2016
Dozens of Turkish military vehicles advanced 200 meters into the Syrian Kurdish region of Aleppo province, ANHA news agency has reported.
Turkish troops have begun digging a trench between the towns of Sorka and Meydan Ekbis, the agency reported, adding that a concrete wall is being built along the Syrian border in that area as well.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has accused forces linked with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia of carrying out a terrorist attack in Ankara that killed at least 28 people on Wednesday.
The alleged attacker received assistance from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Davutoglu claimed in a live television speech. The PM promised to continue shelling the YPG, saying the attack proved that the Syrian Kurdish YPG is a terrorist organization.
The Syrian Kurds deny all allegations and assert that Islamic State was behind the attack.
READ MORE: ‘We have proof’ Turkey backs ISIS & other terrorists – Kurdish commander
“Kurds have nothing to do with what happened in Ankara. What happened there is related to Turkey’s fight with Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL], whose members live in Turkey,” Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) chief Salih Muslim Muhammad told RIA Novosti.
At least six Turkish soldiers were killed and one seriously injured in an explosion that hit a military convoy in the southeast of Turkey, the armed forces said in a statement.
A handmade bomb was detonated by remote control while a military vehicle was searching for mines on the highway linking the city of Diyarbakir to the district of Lice, the military said.
17 February 2016
Ankara wants to create a 10-kilometer-deep secure zone inside Syria along its border with Turkey, which would include the town of Azaz, Reuters reported, citing the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Yalcin Akdogan. “This zone should be free from clashes,” Akdogan said in an interview on Turkey’s AHaber television station.
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned on Wednesday that Ankara does not intend to stop shelling the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) has urged Ankara to comply with international law in Syria.
“UN Security Council members are concerned with the Turkish attacks on a number of Syrian regions,” TASS cited Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez, who now chairs the UNSC, as saying, after a closed-door meeting called to discuss Turkey’s recent shelling of Kurdish YPG militia targets in northern Syria.
“All members of the Security Council... agreed to ask for Turkey to comply with international law,” Ramirez added.
READ MORE: UNSC urges Turkey to ‘comply with intl law’ in Syria after Russia requests meeting
16 February 2016
The positions of Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria have been shelled by the Turkish military for the fourth day in a row, Turkish media reported.
Artillery units in the southeastern province of Kilis fired shells at Kurdish targets in areas under the control of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) on Tuesday morning, Today’s Zaman daily reported, citing the Dogan news agency.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official said that Ankara will ask its coalition partners, including the US, to take part in a joint ground operation in Syria. “We are discussing this with allies,” the official told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul, as cited by Reuters.
14 February 2016
The Syrian government condemned Turkey for shelling Syria’s territory, saying the barrage was providing direct support for “terrorist” groups, Syrian state media reported, citing a letter addressed from Damascus to the United Nations. The officials also confirmed that Syrian army positions had been targeted by Turkish shelling.
Syria’s letter also said that 12 trucks mounted with heavy machine-guns and carrying around a hundred fighters had entered Syrian territory from Turkey through the Bab al-Salam checkpoint on Saturday.
At least two civilians were killed and several injured in the village of Maryamayn in northern Syria when the Turkish army shelled Kurdish militia positions in Aleppo province, Ruptly reported.
Syrian Kurdish news agency ANHA released a video showing damaged buildings and people rushing to take care of the wounded in the village of Maryamayn.
Washington and Paris have called on Ankara to cease its massive artillery bombardment of Kurdish targets near the city of Azaz in northwest Syria.
“We are concerned about the situation north of Aleppo and are working to deescalate tensions on all sides,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Saturday, adding: “We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fire.”
France also joined the calls to halt the bombardment of Kurdish areas in Syria, with the country’s Foreign Ministry saying that Paris calls “for the cessation of all bombardments, those of the regime and its allies on the entire territory and those of Turkey in the Kurdish zones.”
The priority should be the fight against Islamic State and the implementation of the agreements reached by the International Syria Support Group, Paris’ statement added.
The Turkish army has launched a massive attack in northwest Syria, shelling Kurdish targets near the city of Azaz. An air base recently retaken from Islamist rebels has also come under Turkish fire, various media reports suggest. Meanwhile, Syrian government forces were reportedly hit during the Turkish attacks.
The Turkish military hit Syrian government forces on Saturday, Anatolia news agency reported, adding that the shelling had been carried out in response to fire allegedly inflicted on a Turkish military guard post in Turkey’s southern Hatay region.
Turkish artillery targeted Syrian forces again late on Saturday, according to a military source quoted by RIA Novosti. The attack targeted the town of Deir Jamal in the Aleppo Governorate.
Meanwhile, Turkish forces continuously shelled Kurdish positions, a Kurdish source told RT, adding that the military was firing mortars and missiles from the Turkish border not far from the city of Azaz in the Aleppo Governorate. A source in the Turkish government confirmed to Reuters that the Turkish military had shelled Kurdish militia targets near Azaz on Saturday.
12 February 2016
Ankara’s military operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey’s southeastern town of Cizre has been completed, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala has announced.
“The operations in Cizre were completed in a very successful fashion,” Ala told local media, as quoted by Reuters.
Turkey launched its military operation against the Kurds in its southeastern region in July 2015, breaking a ceasefire signed in 2013. Turkey’s General Staff claimed that the army killed more than 700 PKK rebels in the districts of Cizre and Sur during the offensive.
Human rights NGO Amnesty International has reported that at least 150 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the Turkish operation, stressing that over 200,000 lives had been put at risk. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation has said that at least 198 civilians, including 39 children, had been killed in the area since August.
READ MORE: Over 160 civilians, incl. unborn child, killed in Turkish crackdown on Kurds – report
09 February 2016
Several thousand demonstrators gathered in the city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey to protest the police’s unrelenting crackdown on Kurdish activists. While residents of the Kurdish-majority city took to the streets, shops and schools there were also closed as a sign of protest, RIA Novosti reported.
Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon at the demonstrators, with gunfire also reportedly having been heard in the area. A number of protesters were arrested.
At least seven policemen were injured and 17 activists arrested during pro-Kurdish rallies in Paris. The protests against Turkey’s deadly military operation in the town of Cizre followed media reports that Turkish forces had killed about 60 people in the basement of a building in the southeastern Kurdish city.
Around 150 pro-Kurdish activists initially gathered at the Turkish embassy on Avenue de Lamballe in the French capital, Le Parisien reported. After being blocked by police, they tried to break through the cordon, resulting in violent clashes that saw officers using tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters, who returned their fire with stones.
Later in the day, the activists gathered near Place de la Republique, where they held up banners and waved Kurdish flags in another rally. That protest also resulted in clashes with police, who resorted to using batons.
Pro-Kurdish rallies also took place in Germany, Switzerland, and Britain. The Stuttgart march in southwest Germany also ended in clashes, with two activists being arrested, Die Welt reported.
08 February 2016
Hyde Park Corner in central London was blocked by pro-Kurdish activists, who took to the streets of the British capital to protest the killing of 60 people in a Turkish airstrike on the town of Cizre earlier on Monday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Washington to choose between Turkey and the “terrorists,” as he put it, referring to Kurdish representatives.
“Is it me who is your partner, or the terrorists in Kobane?” the Turkish president reportedly said.
The sentiment came after an American envoy from the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) met with officials from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which controls the Syrian town of Kobane.
READ MORE: ‘Me or terrorists?’ Furious Erdogan tells US to choose between Turkey and Syrian Kurds
Around 60 people were reportedly killed in the southeastern Kurdish town of Cizre during a military raid carried out by Turkish security forces, which was allegedly launched to clear out the basement of a building, where it claimed high-profile Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists were holed up, state media reported. According to local activists, civilians had been hiding in the area.
06 February 2016
Ankara’s military operation against Kurdish fighters in Turkey’s southeastern district of Cizre is 99.5 percent complete, Turkish interior minister Efkan Ala has said, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper. The official added that the operation won’t expand territorially. The remaining targets of the Turkish army are high profile terrorists, according to Ala, who also said that security forces are working to relocate displaced people back to the Cizre and Sur districts.
Four Turkish soldiers were reportedly wounded in clashes with Kurds in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeastern part of the country, which is primarily populated by Kurds, RIA Novosti reported. The Turkish Army has cordoned off the area in the historic Sur neighborhood where fighting is taking place.
01 February 2016
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has urged Ankara to investigate the alleged shooting of unarmed people and to rein in its security forces operating in the town of Cizre in Turkey’s southeast.
“I am urging the Turkish authorities to respect the fundamental rights of civilians in its security operations and to promptly investigate the alleged shooting of a group of unarmed people in the southeastern town of Cizre after shocking video footage emerged last week,” Zeid told reporters, referring to an incident taking place on January 20 in which 10 people were wounded as their group, which included two opposition politicians, came under fire while rescuing people who had been injured in earlier clashes.
At least six people died after being blockaded in a basement for days in the Cizre district of Turkey’s Sirnak Province, while 20 more injured victims remain trapped there, Faysal Sariyildiz, Sirnak deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third biggest in the Turkish parliament, told the Cihan news agency. In total, more than 30 people were blocked inside the basement in the area where the Turkish military is fighting Kurdish militants, the official said, adding that ambulances have been denied access to those needing medical assistance.
28 January 2016
Hundreds of people have fled the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, after 23 people were killed in street battles – including three Turkish soldiers and 20 Kurdish fighters. It comes as a curfew has been extended in the city.
Hundreds of people have fled the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, after 23 people were killed in street battles – including three Turkish soldiers and 20 Kurdish fighters. It comes as a curfew has been extended in the city.
27 January 2016
22 January 2016
Graphic footage has emerged allegedly showing civilian Kurds being shot in the city of Cizre. The footage posted on social media shows a procession of people going along a street, pushing a cart with what appears to be two covered bodies. Gunfire can be heard, as people run for cover. Other footage shows several people lying on the ground with blood spilling from their bodies.
RT has been unable to verify the circumstances of the shooting, although it has been claimed that the Kurdish civilians were shot at by Turkish troops involved in a crackdown by the Turkish military. Another version suggests that Kurdish militants were among the ranks of the civilians and opened fire at the Turks, provoking a response.
21 January 2016
Turkey's security operations in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast have put the lives of some 200,000 people at risk, according to Amnesty International. The organization has refuted Ankara's claims that the 24/7 curfew imposed in areas is aimed solely at protecting citizens.
“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,” John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director, said.
“In some areas, crippling curfews that don’t allow people to leave their houses at all have been in place for more than a month, effectively laying siege to entire neighborhoods,” he added.
15 January 2016
Turkey has arrested 12 academics for signing a declaration which denounces Ankara's military operations against Kurds in the southeast.
Anadolu Agency, as cited by AP, says the 12 who were detained by police are lecturers at Kocaeli University in the northwest.
The move comes after 1,200 academics from 89 universities, including prominent foreign scholars such as Noam Chomsky, David Harvey and Immanuel Wallerstein, signed the declaration, which was titled: “We won’t be a part of this crime,” calling on Ankara to end the “massacre and slaughter” in southeast Turkey and lift the siege of Kurdish towns and cities. Ankara has accused them of allegedly participating in “terrorist propaganda.”
13 January 2016
Turkey has established a strict blockade of the Turkish regions in Syria surrounded by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), depriving Syrian Kurds of essential supplies and shooting those trying to enter Turkey from Syria, RT's Murad Gazdiev reports.
The Turkish border with the Kurdish territories in Syria has been fitted with two layers of barbed wire, a huge minefield, and sniper towers.
“They [Turks] do not let anything across: neither food, nor humanitarian aid, nor medicine. They only let returning refugees cross,” Hadir Mustafa, the head of one of the border crossings on the Syrian side, told RT.
“The Turkish soldiers do not cooperate, they are aggressive and hostile. They push, hit people and tell them to never come back,” he added.
11 January 2016
Turkey has killed at least 162 civilians during five months of battling the Kurdish insurgency, according to a report by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT). The death toll includes 29 women, 32 children, and 24 elderly persons. One of the victims was an unborn child, who was killed by a gunshot to his mother's womb.
The foundation also said that since August 16, Turkish troops have disrupted the lives of some 1.4 million people by declaring at least 58 curfews in Kurdish regions. Although some lasted for 10 hours or less, others have gone on for days and weeks.
08 January 2016
Turkish police have raided the Istanbul office of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and detained five senior officials, according to party representatives. It comes after President Erdogan called for a legal action against the party's members.
HDP is parliament's third-largest party and a fierce critic of Erdogan's policies.
04 January 2016
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed a criminal investigation in the leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) opposition party over their calls for autonomy, which was opened last week.
The probe was launched after the party issued a statement calling for the Kurdish population in the southeast of the country to be given self-government.
"The statements of the HDP leaders are constitutional crimes,” Erdogan told reporters in comments published by Hurriyet newspaper on Saturday. “There are investigations started by prosecutors against them. These should be followed up."
24 December 2015
Some 200,000 people have been forced to flee Turkey’s southeast amid escalating violence, ongoing clashes, curfews, and brutal crackdowns related to Ankara's operation against fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Today's Zaman reports.
At least 16 people have been killed in the city of Cizre, a local journalist told RT.
“Sixteen people died after eleven days of the Turkish siege… they are bombing civilians,” the reporter, who wished to remain anonymous, told RT.
“Young people from [Cizre] put up barricades… the government wants to remove [them]”, she added. “They [people] want to protect themselves, because they don’t want to get arrested and they don’t want to go to jail.”
Footage shows the city falling under shelling, with tanks operating in the area.
22 December 2015
The deaths of “well over 100” Kurdish women and children have been recorded over the past six months in southeastern Turkey, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). It has called on Ankara to investigate and scale back its operations in the region.
"Kurdish civilians, including women, children and elderly residents, have been killed during security operations and armed clashes since July 2015," the group said in a report titled 'Turkey: Mounting Security Operation Deaths.'
HRW stressed that an investigation is needed to determine the precise numbers of those who have been killed in the Turkish operation against PKK fighters.
20 December 2015
Turkish police have fired tear gas on several hundred protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square, according to Reuters. At least two demonstrators have been detained.
The protesters gathered to rally against security operations and curfews in the southeast, where more than 100 have been killed this week. The army claimed they were suspected militants, with two soldiers and five civilians also said to have been killed.
19 December 2015
At least 69 Kurdish fighters and two Turkish officers have been killed in four days of military operations near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, military sources told Reuters.
One of the officers was killed in Cizre, while the other died in clashes in Diyarbakir's Sur district. Most of the alleged Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre and Silopi, which have predominantly Kurdish populations.
17 December 2015
The Turkish army has reportedly sent military vehicles, including tanks, into civilian areas in its predominantly-Kurdish southeast.
The People’s Democracy Party (HDP) published a series of photos which reportedly show a fresh raid by the army. According to the party, soldiers in the Yenisehir district of Silopi “broke into a building and pointed guns at people.”
“The world and those justifying this cruelty know well, this isn't an 'anti-terror' act. This is an ethnic cleansing and genocide operation,” the party tweeted.
14 December 2015
Seven Kurds have been killed following clashes with Turkish security forces in the country's southeast. Two died in Diyarbakir as protesters fought with police, while a further five lost their lives in Mardin province.
12 December 2015
Thousands of Iraqis are protesting against the deployment of Turkey's troops to a base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which is held by IS militants.
Protests are taking place across Iraq, with 4,000 people taking part in Baghdad. Demonstrators at the rally called on Ankara to immediately withdraw its forces from Iraq, calling the actions of Turkish authorities “a violation of Iraq's sovereignty” and “occupation.”
Several thousand Iraqis gathered at the protest in the southern city of Basra, with demonstrators reportedly burning the Turkish flag at the rally. Some Shia militia members also joined the protests, carrying banners reading 'Death to Turkey. Death to Erdogan'.
Demonstrators in the southeastern city of Nasiriyah called on the country's prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi to take a “firm stance” against Turkish aggression, Press TV reported.
10 December 2015
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraq is “out of the question,” despite Baghdad condemning the “invasion” as a breach of international law.
“Our servicemen went to Iraq as instructors, their mission is limited to training,” Erdogan said during a news conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
"It is out of the question, at present, that Turkey will pull out its military from Iraq,” he stressed.
09 December 2015
Ten Turkish F-16 fighter jets launched an aerial attack on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) forces in northern Iraq between 10:00pm and 10:50pm on Tuesday, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement. PKK positions in northern Iraq's Kandil, Hakurk, Zap, and Avasin-Baysan regions were targeted and “destroyed.”
02 December 2015
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has told Congress that Turkey's operations are not “directed” at Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL, but rather at the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He added that the Pentagon would like Ankara to “do more” to defeat ISIS.
“Most of their air operations are not directed at ISIL,” Carter said. “They are directed at the PKK, which we understand their concern about – it’s a terrorist organization within their borders – but we would like to see them do more against ISIL.”
“We would like them to operate more both in the air and on the ground,” Carter added.
30 November 2015
An RT crew has been caught in a tear gas attack by Turkish police in Diyarbakir.
RT correspondent William Whiteman said that as the crew tried to enter the center of the city – which had been on lockdown overnight – they immediately encountered a “very tense situation.”
“There were security forces out in full force in the streets with guns and we heard gunshots,” Whiteman reported.
“We have just managed to escape the gas now and it is very intense here,” Whiteman added.
11 November 2015
The small pro-Kurdish town of Silvan has become a major focal point of the Turkish military's campaign, with armored vehicles patrolling the streets and reports of starvation and civilians being killed. The town's curfew has now entered its second week.
"There is no access to communication, people are at risk of starvation. They [Turkish military] didn't give us any permission to distribute food,” said the co-chair of the Diyarbakir office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Omer Onen, as quoted by AFP.
In addition, HDP deputy Ziya Pir has claimed that an official from Turkey's Interior Ministry told the party that security forces “will erase three Silvan neighborhoods from the map,” Evrensel newspaper reported.
29 October 2015
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will not seek anyone's permission to do whatever is necessary to prevent the spread of support for Kurdish autonomy – even if it requires bombing US-allied Syrian rebels.
“We are determined to [combat] anything that threatens us along the Syrian border, inside or out,” Erdogan told Kanal 24 television station on Wednesday.
“If the Kurds withdraw and don’t form a canton, there’s no problem. But if the mindset continues, then what is necessary will be done or we face serious problems,” he added.
08 September 2015
Turkish special forces have crossed into northern Iraq in a ground incursion. The operation is aimed at pursuing Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who launched a fatal attack on the army on Sunday, leaving 16 soldiers dead.
According to Dogan news agency, two units have entered the country to chase in “hot pursuit” two 20-strong groups of PKK militants.
01 August 2015
The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region has condemned the bombardment of Zargala village by the Turkish military, which reportedly killed at least nine people and injured 15 others. He has called for all sides to return to the negotiating table.
"We condemn this bombardment that led to the martyrdom of people from the Kurdistan region and call on Turkey not to bombard civilians again," Massoud Barzani said in a statement on Saturday, Reuters reported.
“The PKK must keep the battlefield away from the Kurdish region in order for civilians not to become victims of this war,” Barzani added.
The attack took place on Saturday, when Turkish fighter jets reportedly bombed a village located on the outskirts of the Kandil Mountains, where PKK camps are based.
26 July 2015
Hundreds of pro-Kurdish protesters have taken to the streets of Germany, France, and the UK to protest against Turkish airstrikes targeting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq and Syria.
A march in London began at Downing Street and blocked the BBC headquarters. The Berlin saw police in riot gear in attendance. Meanwhile, the protest in Paris saw 2,000 demonstrators speaking out against the airstrikes.
25 July 2015
Turkey's prime minister's office has announced that Turkish forces have attacked several militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) positions.
“Strikes were carried out on targets of the Daesh (Islamic State) terror group in Syria and the PKK terror group in northern Iraq,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said in a statement.
According to the office, fighter jets bombed seven PKK positions in northern Iraq, AFP reported. The military also launched simultaneous ground attacks against the PKK and IS in northern Syria, Reuters reported.
The overnight air assault was the first Turkish strike against Kurds since a peace deal between Ankara and the PKK separatists was announced in 2013.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party announced on its website that after last night's airstrikes and ground military attacks, the truce with Turkey has “no meaning anymore.”