'We are Ready to Save Those in Cizre if You won't'

Click here to read the article in Turkish / Haberin Türkçesi için buraya tıklayın

An uninterrupted curfew is being imposed in the Cizre district of Şırnak in Turkey since December 14th, 2015. According to findings of human rights organizations, 66 civilians have lost their lives in Cizre only in this period since December 14th, 2015, and there are strong allegations to indicate that all these individuals have died under the fire of security forces. 

What the 31 people, who have taken shelter in the basement of an apartment building located at Cizre District, Cudi Neighborhood, Bostancı Street No. 23, have been experiencing since the morning of January 23rd, 2016 is an utter human tragedy. One of these people is Cihan Kahraman. When he was wounded due to the clashes, he sought shelter in the basement of this building. An ambulance was requested for Cihan, but it did not come. Because Cihan was not taken to the hospital, his lawyers appealed to ECtHR.

ECtHR process

Despite the injunction of the Court, Cihan Kahraman was not taken to the hospital and he died. Serhat Altun and Hüseyin Paksoy, who also had injunctions from ECtHR, were not taken to the hospital and lost their lives. The appeals of these 31 people in Cizre to official authorities to be taken to the hospital have yielded no results. There are almost no officials left in the State of the Republic of 

Turkey who have not been contacted for these people to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. In the eight days that have elapsed since, six of these people have lost their lives.

Sultan Irmak, who was wounded and waiting to be saved, has died on January 30th and the death toll has reached seven. Contact has been lost with the other wounded people, Mahmut Yavuzel, Feride Yıldız, Ferhat Saltıkat, Ali Fırat Kalkan, Mustafa Vartiyak, Tahir Çiçek, Rıdvan Ekinci, Dersim Aksay, İslam Balıkesir, Serdar Pişkin, Ferhat Karaduman, Sercan Uğur, Rohat Aktaş, Fehmi Dinç. Hacer Aslan, Gülistan Üstün, Sakine Şiray, Berjin Demirkaya, Ramazan İşçi, Mahmut Duymak, Kasım Yana, Osman Gökhan, İzzet Gündüz, who are reported to be with the wounded to rescue them, are in a debilitated state waiting to be taken out themselves.

Efforts to save them bear no fruit

24 people are living under constant threat of death and are waiting to be rescued. The street and building where these people are is constantly under artillery fire. Even though the HDP group headed by HDP MP Faysal Sarıyıldız, human rights organizations and the democratic public have been exerting enormous effort to save these people, these efforts have borne no fruit and the delegations and volunteers who have tried to go to rescue the wounded have been stopped and deterred.

It has come to the point that we are being asked to bear witness to the deaths of these people on live broadcast. We are faced with a horrendous tragedy. The Constitutional Court has rejected the demand for an injunction for the suspension of operations so that these people can be taken to the hospital by ambulance and ECtHR has postponed its deliberations to February 2nd. The Law and state institutions have also begun to die together with the death of humanity.

The wounded await to be rescued

The 24 people who are still alive, 15 of whom are wounded, all await to be rescued. 

As signatories below, we call on those who have the slightest compassion for other human beings: 

"It is a prerequisite of being human to extend a helping hand to whoever lies wounded awaiting to be rescued. In a state of law, this is an obligation. At times when armed conflict has turned into a state of madness, we see no way but to appeal to the conscience of humanity. To die and to kill means also killing humanity.

"We call on state authorities to urgently transfer the 24 people, 15 of whom are wounded, in Cizre to the hospital by ambulance so that our social peace is not abolished and we don’t lose our human values. If you don’t rescue them, we are ready to do so".  

Signatories

Öztürk Türkdoğan, Kadir İnanır, Murathan Mungan, Tarık Ziya Ekinci, Vedat Türkali, Rakel  Dink, Jülide Kural, Ayşegül Devecioğlu,Lale Mansur, Ayşegül Doğan, Ümit Kıvanç, Baskın Oran, Orhan Alkaya, Ali Nesin, Celal Başlangıç, Adalet Ağaoğlu, Ömer Laçiner, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Oya Baydar, Osman Kavala, Hakan Tahmaz, Abdülbaki Erdoğmuş, Şanar Yurdatapan, Perihan Mağden, Zeynep Tanbay, Ufuk Uras, Mıgırdıç Margos,  İmam Taşçıer, Hüda Kaya, Nurcan Baysal, Levent Gültekin, Latife Tekin, Jaklin Çelik, Ayça Damgacı,  Zeynep Tozduman, , Sibel Özbudun, Temel Demirer, Melek Göregenli, Pınar Aydınlar, Reyan  Tuvi, Sinan Keskin, Ferhat Tunç, Muteber Öğreten, Türkcan Baykal, Erdal Doğan, Bülent Atamer, Atilla Durak, Yücel Tunca, İbrahim Sediyani, Hanife Yüksel, Asuman Bayrak, Semra Somersan, Oktay Etiman, Neşe Yaşın, Baha Cengiz Türer, Yavuz Ata, Muzaffer Kurtoğlu, Cafer Solgun, Seçkin Özsoy, Mehmet Akyürek, Cem Özatalay, Halil Savda, Erhan Yalçındağ, Peri Pamir, Tülay Öztürk, Meral Geylani, Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, Aksel Avan, Onur Hamzaoğlu, Gülay Bulut, Ebru Ergün, Ayşe Erzan, Abdulhakim Daş, Gonca Gedikoğlu, Yücel Demirer, Orhan Silier, Dilek Hattatoğlu, Fethiye Çetin, Ziynet Özçelik, Yıldız Tar, Mustafa Oğuz Sinemmillioğlu, Kubal Altınel, Semih Bilgen, Selim Temo, Yalçın Ergündoğan, Emel Ataktürk, Özlem Dalkıran, Ozan Telli, Ahmet Bülent Özer, Hasan Özpolat, Melek Ulagay Taylan, Mehmet Fatih Tıraş, Tuna Altınel, Bilge Selçuk, Tatyos Bebek, Oktay Etiman, Evrim Kaçar, Dilek Gökçin, Umur Coşkun, Mehmet Akyürek, Deniz Koloğlu, Erkan Arslan, Evrim Karakaş, Seher Kalkan, Uğraş Salman, Zelal Ekinci, Ercan İpekçi, Arif Ali Cangı, Meryem Koray, İnsel Sılade, Ercan Zincir, Rojbin Tugan Kalkan, Ayten Alkan, Uğraş Salman, Birgül Taştan, Fırak Gökal, Hade Türkmen, Z. Zevan Karabulut, Batur Talu, Hanife Yüksel, Başak Tan, Demir Küçükaydın,Şenol karakaş, Feyha Karslı, Evrim Kavcar, Yonca Demir, Kürşat Aker, Adnan Fırat Bayar, Osman Murat Ülke, Zehra Soydan, Hayrettin Bulan, Alev Er, Uğur Aker, Nesrin Nas, Halim Bulutoğlu, Ahmet Dindar, Beril Eyüboğlu, Zeynep Alpar, Semih Bilgen, Nilgün Yurdalan, Viki Çiprut, Celal korkut, Y. Bülent Atamer, Meral Çıldır, Bülent Müftüoğlu. (BK/HK)