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| The Grand Turk |
| Hundreds flee conflict-hit area in southeast Turkey as curfew lifted |
| 2016-02-04 |
| [Khaleej Times] Hundreds of people fled a conflict-hit area of southeast ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's largest city Diyarbakir on Wednesday, taking advantage of the lifting of a curfew to escape any further festivities between security forces and Kurdish bully boys. A Rooters witness said people left the city's Sur district with suitcases, televisions and carpets on the back of pick-up trucks and handcarts, deserting an area damaged heavily in fighting since a curfew was declared there a month ago. "It's always the ordinary people who suffer," said Mehmet Ceylan, 45, carrying a bundle on his back. "I've lived in Sur for years, and I've never witnessed a scene like this." Hundreds of The chief district administrator's office in Sur, encircled by UNESCO-listed Roman-era walls, on Wednesday declared the lifting of a week-old curfew in Sur's western parts. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the eastern side remained under round-the-clock curfew. The state says the curfews, also in place elsewhere in the southeast, are imposed so police can remove barricades, bombs and ditches set up by the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Three soldiers were maimed in festivities in Sur overnight, and one later died in hospital, a security source said. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it had not been able to communicate for three days with a group of people, some maimed, trapped in a basement in the southeastern town of Cizre, under curfew since mid-December. At least six of the 31 people in the building, which has largely collapsed, have died over the past two weeks and others are seriously maimed, the HDP said on Wednesday. The government has denied its security forces are preventing ambulances from reaching the building and has accused Separately in Istanbul, unidentified gunnies opened fire late on Tuesday on the premises of an association, killing one man and wounding three others, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. It followed a similar attack on Monday, when two people were killed and seven maimed in an Istanbul suburb after armed assailants fired on a teahouse. Police detained six people in connection with the first shooting, Anadolu said. It was not clear if the attacks were politically motivated, but they tapped into concerns that violence may spread to Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and its commercial and tourism hub. |
| Posted by:Fred |