HRW: Turkey Must Investigate Civilian Deaths in PKK Campaign

The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.

Citizens daring to violate or protest the curfew to get food and supplies have been fired at with tear gas, water canon and even bullets.

Since July, local rights groups have recorded more than 100 civilian deaths and multiple injuries of Kurdish civilians. The military also reported the death of 11 PKK militants, pushing the total count of “terrorists” killed to 80. It said those actions, and those of the government security forces, prevent medical personnel from reaching those who have been wounded.

Since then, there has been what’s being described as an unprecedented military operation in heavily populated towns and cities in the south east.

Police use water cannons and teargas to disperse people protesting against security operations against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey, in Istanbul, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015.

Since August 16, provincial authorities in the southeast have announced repeated prolonged curfews in whole cities and towns or in particular neighborhoods. France 24 reported that at least two Turkish soldiers and five civilians were also killed in the clashes.

Over a dozen people, including a Turkish soldier, have been killed in clashes in the volatile southeastern part of Turkey. The three-decade conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK rebels have claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people.

The group also called on Kurdish armed groups to stop digging trenches, planting explosive and putting up barricades.

The Kurdish Islamist party Huda-Par, usually sympathetic to the ruling AK Party, said security forces were taking positions inside civilian houses, including those of two party members, against the residents’ will, therefore making them a target.

“We stand by our people who resist the tanks and shelling”, he said before leaving for Moscow on a visit criticised by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting an insurgency since 1984, demanding greater Kurdish autonomy in the southeast of the country. The army said that two schools used by the PKK as hideouts had been rendered inoperable while a stash of arms had been seized in Silopi.