A new report has revealed some 400,000 people were displaced from predominantly Kurdish cities during Turkish military operations in 2015 and 2016 against a Kurdish terrorist group in the country’s Southeast, the Bianet news website reported.
Local authorities had declared lengthy curfews that complicated daily life during that period.
As a result of military operations large parts of residential areas in cities and towns of Şırnak, Cizre, Silopi, İdil, Mardin, Nusaybin, Hakkari, Yüksekova and Diyarbakır were destroyed, and hundreds of civilians died as a result of the clashes.
The report, drafted by the Diyarbakır branch of the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects Chambers (TMMOB), also indicated that the remaining population in those cities have become poorer as some of them have lost their homes and properties.
According to the report the population of Cizre, where the last curfew lasted 79 days, has declined to nearly 20,000, as some 110,000 people were displaced due to military activity.
In a 43-day curfew in southeastern İdil district, 80 percent of the population migrated and dozens of civilians died, the report said.
Six neighborhoods were completely destroyed in Diyarbakır’s Sur district, the report indicated, adding that the latest curfew imposed by the local governor is still in effect.
After halting peace negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group in 2015, the Turkish military launched a large-scale military operation in the southeastern provinces, where the PKK has been waging a decades-long insurgency.