The medical peace organization IPPNW demands that the planned deportation of HDP activist Nazdar Ecevit to Turkey be stopped. The Frankfurt District Court on Monday issued a deportation order against the Kurdish woman, who survived the Turkish military siege in Cizre, Şırnak. Her asylum application was rejected, although she has already been in Turkish custody for several years and will continue to face massive political persecution by state authorities. In the event of a return, Ecevit faces many years in prison in Turkey. She continues to be held in custody pending deportation in Darmstadt after being taken from her accommodation in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district last week.

IPPNW members were also in Cizre

In the winter of 2015/2016, Nazdar Ecevit participated in civilian rescue operations during the massacres in the Kurdish town of Cizre. In the process, she came under fire and was injured. Members of the German section of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians in Social Responsibility) were also in Cizre in March 2016 and "saw the pictures of the destroyed houses and heard the first-hand reports of acts of violence by the Turkish state against the residents," the organization explained in a statement.

At least 288 dead

The "Cizre Death Cellars" - this expression stands for a series of massacres committed by the Turkish military in Cizre on February 7, 2016 - in residential buildings where quite a few people sought shelter from the war crimes of the Turkish state during the military siege. According to reports by human rights organizations, at least 177 people were burned alive or shot by security forces in the "death cellars of Cizre", most of whom were students. In total, at least 288 people died during the siege of the town. While in some cellars those seeking shelter inside were burned to death when the military piped gasoline into the cellars filled with people, Turkish troops stormed other cellars and shot those present before burning them to death. The bodies of 14 people killed in the Cizre death cellars have disappeared to this day.

Doctor sentenced for aiding

During the siege, it was forbidden to care for the wounded or to retrieve the dead from the streets. People who tried to leave their neighborhoods with white flags were shot at. "Our colleague Dr. Serdar Küni, representative of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TIHV) in Sirnak, helped anyway. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison for not passing on information about wounded patients to the official law enforcement authorities and thus supporting a terrorist organization," stated IPPNW doctor Christa Blum.

Penteker: Kurds have a long history of oppression

"The cruelty against the Kurdish population had reached a new peak here, similar to other cities: it can only be explained - if at all - by the long history of oppression and attempted resistance of the Kurds. Almost everyone who had signed a demand for peace during these days was removed from office and or imprisoned," said IPPNW physician Dr. Gisela Penteker.

Activist on hunger strike

After Monday’s court decision, Nazdar Ecevit declared to protest against the court's decision with an indefinite hunger strike. The activist had successfully fought off a first deportation attempt last Thursday, and the next one is expected to follow in three weeks. Meanwhile, the Frankfurt chapter of the Women Defend Rojava (WDR) campaign has launched a greeting card campaign to support Ecevit. WDR is calling on the public to participate in the campaign. The address is: Nazdar Ecevit, Deportation Prison Darmstadt, Marienburgstraße 78, 64297 Darmstadt.