14.09.2015

Remember 100 Years Of State Terror In Cizre

While news flow on social media despite the main stream’s blindness, tweet after tweet with photos of demolished houses, hunted children, bodies of civilians in refrigerators, we wonder and ask: ‘Have we done our best to show our solidarity with the people of Cizre?’ Calls for peace, arrested comrades in protests for Cizre, tweeting and posting again and again with hashtags for the world to notice.

Answer: Apparently not.

Before we condole ourselves we should lay our eyes on the cold balance sheet of only 8 days of curfew in Cizre and then go 100 years back, confronting Armenian genocide and Seyfo – Assyrian genocide which took place on the same lands.

Balance Sheet of Cizre Curfew:

On the 4th of September governorship declared curfew in Cizre, an order for massacre, siege and isolation to hide what was happening in the district. 22 civilians were murdered, 50 were injured by a special force team of 300 including snipers placed on the roofs to hunt children, youth, women, everyone who dared to go out to the streets for food and water since electricity and water were cut out during the curfew. That curfew was not the first one since Suruç bombing which government used as an excuse to start a war against not only Kurdish provinces but also all leftist forces in order to punish people for not voting for AKP in June 7 elections and for continuous resistence rising up whether or not this resistence was enough to break the chains. Every piece of critical voice should be drowned immediately, children throwing stones were shot like in Palestine, youth who went to Suruç to show their solidarity with Kobane were bombed, families of soldiers questioning fate of their sons sacrificed for the imperialist interests of the state were despised. After 31 soldiers were killed (16 according to the military) in guerilla attack in Dağlıca, rascists provoked by the government took to the streets as a rehearsal of a civil war.

*Photos of Bünyamin İrci (14) murdered by special forces in Cizre.

It is claimed that after the curfew was unbanned on September 12, special forces left bombs in neighborhoods while withdrawing. One of these bombs exploded leaving 4 people injured and causing one child to lose hand and foot.

*Scene of the moment when bombs were placed in neighborhoods of Cizre

While government officials deny the civilian deaths, after 8 days of curfew which was broken with the resistence of people and committees of HDP and other democratic forces that marched to Cizre, people burried their beloved ones at last with a massive funeral.

In 1993, gendarme had attacked Kurdish province Lice leaving 30 residents dead,  401 homes and 242 businesses destroyed. At that time a committee had attempted to march to Lice to break the siege and show the public what was really happenning. That committee had been blocked by the security forces like the freedom march to Cizre. State forces attacked freedom  march to Cizre and killed 2 truck drivers trying to reach to Cizre from Zaho.

#CizreFreedomMarch

Committees consisting of THİV (Turkey Human Rights Foundation), İHD (Human Rights Association), TTB (Turkish Medical Association), 300 lawyers, representatives of HDP, DTK and KJA and many other associations reached to Cizre to document the crimes of state violating European and United Nations conventions on human rights (agreements to violate for the states).

People of Cizre resisted and broke the siege, however after only 1,5 days curfew has been redeclared again in Cizre starting from 19.00, September 13. An order again for siege, new crimes, state terror, more children to burry and yet again popular resistence daring the state in return.

What happened 100 years ago?

Before the forced deportation of Armenians,  Armenian neighborhoods were blockaded, citizens were arrested in the city town of Diyarbakır province where Cizre was an intrastate county then.

According to Raymond Kevorkian’s book titled ‘Armenian Genocide’, in the first half of 1915’s April, state was after deserters in towns and villages of Diyarbakır. In town center of Diyarbakır, Armenian neighborhood was blockaded by gendarme, police and paramilitary forces.

During the house raids in the name of hunt of deserters and weapons, people got arrested, even youth who were not old enough to become soldier had been remanded, rapes and violence took place.

Operations were not limited with these house raids. On the 19th of April, 1915, members of eparchy council, church committees and social associations were arrested and jailed on charge of guilt by association. On the 20th of April, a meeting was organised at Armenian Eparchy to decide whether to start self-defense but concluded with a consensus to remain passive unfortunately.

The nastiest blow hit Cizre which was a county of Diyarbakır province then. According to the census of patriarchate, 4,281 Armenians were living in Cizre at that time.

Kurdish tribes were provoked by the state against Armenians – like the state’s strategy to provoke people against Kurds after and now. On the 29th of August in 1915, massive arrestments took place. Armenian,  Orthodox and Catholic Assyrian men were arrested, tortured and murdered. According to the statement of eyewitnesses, non-muslim men’s throats were slit and their bodies were thrown into Dicle River. On the 1st of September, children and women deported to Musul, many of them lost their lives on the road, kidnapped, raped, killed like the other refugees of middle east right now.

Massacres of the past will hunt us unless we resist as an united anti-fascist, anti-imperialist block.

To break the siege of Cizre, in other cities of Turkey life should stop. Make them pay by denying to produce fund for their unjust military attacks. One day of massive strike would cause millions of dollars. 2 days will make them writhe. Make them pay. Block their money funding their imperialist wars.

Writing this piece, we feel obliged to commemorate the comrades who lost their lives, had been tortured, jailed, exiled during the military coup that commenced in 1980, September 12. For our fathers tortured and jailed, mothers hunted and exiled, we know justice has not been served for you.

isyandan.org

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