Post-curfew photos tell story of nine-day clashes in Turkey's Cizre

İdris Emen - ŞIRNAK

Residents of the Cizre district of southeastern Turkey’s Şırnak province, where a nine-day curfew ended as of 7:00 a.m. on Sept. 12, remained deprived of health and funeral services and access to food for days, according to witnesses and fresh photographs. 

People flocked to stores that opened early in the morning as a few pharmacies were opened. 
Bodies of people that were killed during the clashes in Cizre were seen at their houses, while injured people were trying to treat themselves as no ambulances worked. 

Power and water was cut, phone and internet connection was poor. 

After the lifting of the curfew, people began visiting the families of the victims to extend condolences. 

“My father deteriorated yesterday [Sept 11], but we could not call the ambulance since telephone was not working. We could not take him [to the hospital] because of the clashes although we have a car,” said Şahin Açık, the son of Mehmet Emin Açık who died of heart attack said Sept. 12. 

Bahattin Yeşil said their house was targeted as they were eating.
 
“One bullet remains under my chest another on my leg. My son was shot on the leg. A bullet injured my daughter-in-law.  We stopped bleeding ourselves. We still cannot reach the ambulance,” he said. 



Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, on Sept. 11 expressed alarm over the "very distressing information" from Cizre, urging that independent observers be allowed into the city.