Over 2,000 people, including civilians, are estimated killed in largely Kurdish-populated southeast Turkey in government security ops from July 2015 to December 2016, the UN said, adding that the protection of human rights is almost non-existent.
“Between July 2015 and December 2016, some 2,000 people were reportedly killed in the context of security operations in South-East Turkey,” the report by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said.
This number includes around 1,200 local residents, “of which an unspecified number may have been involved in violent or non-violent actions against the State,” the paper says.
The report detailed “allegations of massive destruction, killings and numerous other serious human rights violations” during government security operations, the UN said, adding that these operations affected “more than 30 towns and neighborhoods and displaced between 335,000 and half a million people, mostly of Kurdish origin.”
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said that the “apparent significant deterioration” of human rights in Turkey is “a cause for the alarm.”
“I am particularly concerned by reports that no credible investigation has been conducted into hundreds of alleged unlawful killings, including women and children… It appears that not a single suspect was apprehended and not a single individual was prosecuted,” Zeid said.
According to the report, “the subsequent demolition of the buildings destroyed evidence and has therefore largely prevented the basic identification and tracing of mortal remains.”
“Moreover, instead of opening an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the reported excessive use of force, recourse to heavy weapons and the resulting deaths, the local authorities accused the people killed of participating in terrorist organizations and took repressive measures affecting members of their families.”
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The UN says that Turkish authorities brought in machinery “to raze entire city quarters to the ground,” including cultural heritage sites.
“The centres of towns and cities across South-East Turkey have been described as empty moonscapes and vast parking lots.”
It cites, as an example, urban dwellings in the 2,000-year-old city centre of Diyarbakır which were “razed to the ground” in August 2016.
