Turkish town picks up pieces after two-week lockdown

Residents of Silvan returned to find their homes and properties devastated when the curfew was lifted on November 14, signalling the end to the military operation.

Sahin Donmez surveys the damage to his house on November 14, 2015 after almost two weeks of street battles between Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces in the southeastern town of Silvan, as Ankara pursues "anti-terror" operations against suspected militants allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ilyas Akengin/AFP PhotoShow less

Silvan, Turkey // Sahin Donmez surveys the damage to his house after almost two weeks of street battles between Kurdish militants and the Turkish security forces in the south-eastern town of Silvan.

“Look. The fruit of 40 years of work,” said Mr Donmez, who fled the town with his family when the fighting began. “Gone up in smoke.”

The local authorities imposed a curfew in three key districts of Silvan, a town of around 40,000 in Diyarbakir province, early this month.

It was the latest in a string of ongoing military lockdowns ordered by the authorities in mainly Kurdish south-eastern Turkey to pursue “anti-terror” operations against suspected militants allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

For 12 days, army tanks and elite snipers tracked fighters from the PKK’s youth branch, the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth-Movement (YDG-H).

The militants dug ditches and erected barricades in a bid to hit back at the police.

The toll was heavy – with five Kurdish fighters, an army officer, two police and two civilians killed, according to official figures.

The office of the local governor of Diyarbakir region finally lifted the curfew in the afternoon of November 14, signalling the end to the military operation.

“From where did this start? From which sides did the shots come? We don’t know,” Mr Donmez said.

The authorities have hailed the operation as a great success, saying the town has been entirely rid of PKK militants who had threatened the security of every citizen.

But Nedret Yakan, 35, saw no consolation as she contemplated the cracked window of her hairdresser’s salon with its shattered mirrors and smashed furniture.

“Twenty years of my life, wiped out in a few days.”

Ms Yakan sent her children to relatives in Istanbul. “If I am helped to repair my shop, I will be able to resume my work. But if I don’t, I will not be able to devote 20 more years of my life to it.”

The authorities blame the damage on the PKK, saying that if its armed militants were not present in urban centres there would be no need for such operations.

The Turkish authorities have repeatedly launched military operations, accompanied by curfews, to back up a relentless four-month land and air campaign against the PKK.

On November 5 the PKK ended a unilateral ceasefire it had declared in 2013 to assist in the search for a permanent peace deal to end its three-decade insurgency, which has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The latest crackdowns have come amid a turbulent period in Turkish politics, with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan regaining its overall majority in snap November 1 polls after losing it in June elections.

The HDP accuses the government of using excessive force and says only a permanent peace deal can resolve Turkey’s Kurdish problem.

HDP co-chairwoman Figen Yuksekdag said those pursued by the government in Silvan and other towns were young people who needed hope in their lives.

“These young people who put up the barricades are angry over the government’s violent politics,” she said.

“These are not fighters ... These are town-dwellers, young people who grew up in this area.”

“We need to resume the peace process, it’s the only way to solve the problem,” Ms Yuksekdag said.

* Agence France-Presse