Turkey: NEW 24-hour curfews for several Kurdish towns

[Anthea]

Fox News

Turkey declares new 24-hour curfew for mainly-Kurdish town

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish authorities have declared a new 24-hour, indefinite curfew at a mainly-Kurdish town where Turkey's security forces are set to launch a large-scale operation to battle Kurdish militants.

The local governor's office said the curfew would take effect in the town of Yuksekova — near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran — at 2000 GMT on Sunday. It said entering and leaving the town would also be banned. News reports say dozens of tanks have been deployed to Yuksekova.

Turkey has imposed curfews in several flashpoint districts in the southeast since August to root out militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who had set up barricades, dug trenches and planted explosives.

The military operations have raised concerns over human rights violations and scores of civilian deaths.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/13 ... -town.html

[Anthea]

NRT

Turkish authorities instituted round-the-clock curfews in the mainly-Kurdish southeastern towns of Gavar (Yuksekova) and Nusaybin, where tight security has been raised.

Turkey has imposed curfews in several cities in the southeast since August 2015 in an effort to root out the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Hundreds have died since the PKK and the Turkish state resumed hostilities after the collapse of the ceasefire in July 2015.

The Turkish army deployed dozens of tanks to Gavar and Nusaybin and news reports say people will be prevented from entering and exiting the towns.

Turkey’s Interior Minister, Avkan Alaa, said the military was conducting operations in Gavar, Nusaybin and Sirnak.

Iraqi Parliament members on Sunday (March 6) called on the central government to work through the United Nations Security Council to put pressure on the Turkish government to halt military operations in the southeast of Turkey.

Nearly 70 Iraqi MPs issued a joint statement urging the Turkish government to halt operations in the southeast of the country.

The statement called on the curfews in several of Turkey’s predominately Kurdish cities to be lifted and assistance be sent to those affected by the destruction caused during the fighting between the Turkish military and the PKK.

“The international community must persuade the Turkish government and the PKK to return to the negotiation table,” the statement read.

The statement additionally brought up claims that Turkey had used chemical weapons against the PKK and called on this to be investigated.

Southeastern Turkey has plunged back into some of its worst violence since the 1990s after a two-year ceasefire between the PKK - designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union - and the state collapsed in July.

Warplanes have bombed PKK camps in southeastern Turkey and across the border in the mountains of northern Iraq, while thousands of troops backed by tanks have in recent weeks pressed a campaign within Turkey to flush out militants on the ground.

A handful of cities in Turkey's southeast have been engulfed in the worst violence since the 1990s following the breakdown of a two-year ceasefire with the PKK last July.

http://www.nrttv.com/EN/Details.aspx?Jimare=5817