Some 200,000 at Risk in Turkey’s Fight Against Kurdish Militants – Amnesty

 

Reuters, 21/01 14:05 CET

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Security operations in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast have put up to 200,000 people at risk, placing them in the crossfire or cutting them off from emergency and basic services such as water, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Round-the-clock curfews amid clashes between security forces and the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have confined people indoors, even forcing some to live with the corpses of dead relatives, for days, it said in a report.

Authorities say the curfews are aimed at protecting civilians amid near-daily clashes.

“Turkey has never taken an approach that would endanger the lives of innocent citizens,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity in response to Amnesty’s report. “This is a struggle against a terrorist organization that harms everyone in the region and is responsible for the deaths of many people, primarily security forces.” 

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Source: Euronews