The curfew in Şırnak has continued for 8 months despite there taking place no clashes in the city. The people who had to leave their homes due to the clashes aren’t allowed to return and they are prevented from taking their belongings from their homes.

HDP Co-chair Demirtaş talked about an important piece of information regarding the demolitions in Şırnak in his party’s group meeting yesterday. According to Demirtaş, the company that undertook the demolition in Şırnak didn’t do it in return for money, but for wares. Demirtaş said: “The goods they find will belong to the demolition crew. They consider people’s belongings as booty.”

HDP Şırnak MP Leyla Birlik expressed that the families were prevented from taking their belongings from their homes and said: “There are so many families in this situation. My father’s house was also demolished, they couldn’t take their belongings either.”

Birlik spoke to ANF regarding the latest situation in the city and said: “There haven’t been any clashes since June. But the curfew still hasn’t been lifted. There is no security issue in the city either. The other day, the governor held a meeting in the city center with the trustees he appointed. But still, they haven’t lifted the curfew and don’t let people through.”

“PEOPLE APPEALED FOR THEIR BELONGINGS BUT THEY WEREN’T EVEN ANSWERED”

Birlik mentioned Governor Ali İhsan Su’s statement of “Those who want their belongings can appeal to the district governorates” and said: “We directed the people to the district governorates after this statement. The families appealed to get their belongings, they wrote petitions. But not one of these petititons was answered. There are very few families who could take their belongings, and they are either village guards or somehow related to the state. There are less than a hundred of these families. But thousands of families can’t take their belongings. Some footage spread over social media in the last couple of days, in the footage a man on duty says to the citizen who wants to take their belongings that they “do this demolition in return for these goods” and the citizen tells them to “tear the building down with the goods still inside, I won’t allow you to take my belongings.” The man says, “Then the goods will be removed from the rubble and sold to a scrapyard.” They gave the company the job along with the belongings. 7 thousand buildings were torn down up to now. They haven’t started demolitions in Dicle, Yeni and Bahçelievler neighborhoods yet. This means the curfew will continue for weeks to come.”

Birlik underlined that the city was being turned into a ghost town by forcing the residents to migrate and said: “This displacement policy is connected to the government’s plans to demote Şırnak into a district. Also, the contractors don’t want the people in the city. They say they can’t complete the demolitions if the people returned. The governor doesn’t want the people in the city in any case.”

“AKP’S GOVERNOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS”

HDP Şırnak MP Leyla Birlik stated that the Şırnak Governor Ali İhsan Su was responsible for everything, including the declaration of the curfew, and said: “The governor is heading this operation. AKP’s governor is responsible for all this destruction. If he was a people’s governor, he would give one single explanation for a solution to the people in all this time. We haven’t been able to meet with him once in eight months. In 8 months, I was only able to meet with his deputy. In that recent meeting, when I asked where the people were supposed to go, the deputy governor said, ‘Wherever, we aren’t interested.’ And it’s true, they aren’t interested in what happens to the people.”

“PEOPLE IN TENTS DON’T WANT TO LEAVE THE CITY”

HDP MP emphasized that the people struggling to live in tents have no intention of leaving the city and said: “We are with the people in the tents constantly. None of them have any intention to leave, they are determined to stay. The people won’t forget any of this. Those responsible will answer for all these. The security policies they employed for the last forty years didn’t work then, and they won’t work now.”