In a report by RT News, photos of a war-torn Cizre Turkey have emerged with reports of Cizre Kurds being massacred by the Turkish military in what it sees as a crackdown of ‘terrorists’ in its ongoing war with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) (warning: some of these images may be disturbing, viewer discretion is advised).
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RT’s William Whiteman was on the ground in Cizre and received reports of Turkish troops slaughtering hundreds of Kurdish civilians in Cizre as well as claims of Kurds being burned to death (150 are estimated to have been burned to death) and beheaded; this in addition to a report in February that Kurdish civilians were trapped in a basement with no way to escape resulting in many deaths.
As Whiteman made his way through a decimated Cizre, he was able to speak with several witnesses who recalled the horror and barbarism they continue to live under with one woman saying whilst pointing at blood stains,
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Erdogan has destroyed our world. He has burned us. Three, four – maybe five hundred people. There were old people, women and children – some as young as 10 years old. They killed a heavily pregnant woman. Women and children lived here. Erdogan killed all of them with heavy artillery, he destroyed this home. They claim they are fighting ‘terrorists’ – but where are the terrorists?”
She continued by arguing that all of the victims had been civilians. As Whiteman continued through Cizre, he noted the stench of decomposition that led him to the discovery of a basement being used as a mass grave where a local woman noted that several of the bodies appear to be violently beheaded and burned.
News of this massacre and the continued reporting of the plight of the Kurds has been given to ‘HRW (Human Rights Watch), MSF International and MSF Middle East (Médecins Sans Frontières), the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), the OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), and Amnesty International.’ This action prompted the European Parliament to address Turkish President Erdogan on these atrocities against Kurdish civilians in Cizre.
Gregory Copley, editor of Defense and Foreign Affairs, said,
“The objective of the Erdogan government is to completely have a genocidal campaign against the Kurds, because that’s what’s now occurring. This is now genocide, because the Turkish government has denied that there is any major military operation underway there.”
With Turkey’s recent crackdown of its own press (Today’s Zaman), there’s no doubt Erdogan is doing his best to cover up his genocide of the Kurds and suppress the press who may report on it.
What are your thoughts on how the U.S. should approach this and how can the U.S. get the Kurds in Cizre the help (medical, food, water, etc) they need right now? Sound off in the comments below!
