Curfew in Siirt

* Photograph: Siirt Express

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The Governorship of Siirt has announced that a curfew has been declared in five villages and neighborhoods in the district of Eruh in Turkey's southeastern province of Siirt on the ground that an operation will be conducted in the region.

In the announcement published on the official website of the governorship yesterday (September 17), it was stated that an operation will be launched in the curfew zone by the Siirt Provincial Gendarmerie Commandership.

The Governorship did not announce the ending date of the curfew, which was declared as per the Law no. 5442 on Provincial Administration.

As of 6 p.m. on September 17, the curfew was in effect in the following ares:

In the district of Eruh, the villages of Gedikaşar and Bilgili; the neighborhoods of Tatlıpınar, Eşik and Çayırlı.

About Siirt Siirt, a province in the southeast of Turkey, is located in an area where the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Anatolia intersect. Being a mountain region, the province consists of high mountains and plateaus. The population of Siirt is 324 thousand 394. Co-Mayor of the city Belkıza Beştaş Epözdemir was arrested in May 2016 and Co-Mayor Tuncer Bakırhan was arrested in November 2016. Ceyhun Dilşad Taşkın, who was previously the Vice Governor of Siirt, has been appointed as the Vice Mayor of the city.

At least 314 curfews in three years

According to the figures shared by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) Documentation Center, from August 16, 2015, when the curfews started to be imposed for the first time, to June 1, 2018, at least 314 curfews were declared in 11 provinces and 49 districts in total.

Curfew were imposed in the following southeastern and eastern provinces: Diyarbakır (178 times), Mardin (50), Hakkari (23), Şırnak (13), Bitlis (17), Muş (7), Bingöl (7), Tunceli (6), Batman (6), Elazığ (2) and Siirt (5).

The census conducted in 2014, when no curfews had yet been declared, at least 1 million and 809 thousand people living in the abovementioned districts and provinces were affected by the curfews. (AS/SD)