by Stephen Lendman
Turkey is waging slow-motion genocide on its Kurdish population the way America ravished its native people, populations of nations it attacks, as well as how Israel massacres Palestinians.
Turkish Kurdistan is a war zone, home for about a fourth of the country’s population, around 20 million people.
Targeted cities and towns are trapped under siege - without food, electricity, medical supplies and other essentials. Wrongfully designated terrorists, PKK freedom fighters want local autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.
Erdogan vowed to annihilate them, destroy their homes and buildings, saying “(o)ur security forces will continue this fight until (areas being attacked) are completely cleansed” - no matter the cost in human lives and suffering.
Defenseless civilians are being massacred, their homes, schools, hospitals and vital infrastructure destroyed.
The international community is virtually silent, ignoring Erdogan’s savagery. Nuremberg-level war crimes are being committed unaccountably.
RT International reported on genocide in Cizre, located in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia region near bordering Syria and Iraq, its mostly Kurdish population numbering about 130,000.
Hundreds of civilians are trapped, denied access to food, medicines and other essentials. Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Feleknas Uca said 150 people were burned alive by Turkish forces.
RT said regime atrocities couldn’t be confirmed until now. Eyewitness survivors explained them, including precise locations of mass killings - major crimes of war and against humanity.
An unnamed woman said “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Erdogan has destroyed our world. He has burned us.” She pointed out blood stains on the building set ablaze, scores inside deliberately immolated.
Hundreds of Cizre civilians were massacred, including women, children and the elderly. “Erdogan killed all of them with heavy artillery,” she explained.
He claims he’s fighting terrorists. Where are they, she asked? Defenseless civilians alone were massacred.
Dozens were discovered burned alive in another building, many beheaded by Turkish forces. RT supplied harrowing video footage to various human rights organizations, including the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, notoriously pro-Western, a longstanding imperial tool while pretending otherwise.
Defense and Foreign Affairs editor Gregory Copley minced no words, saying “(t)he objective of the Erdogan (regime) is to completely have a genocidal campaign against the Kurds…(T)hat’s what’s now occurring” - Turkish forces using heavy weapons against noncombatant civilians.
Interviewed by RT, American Kurdish Information Network director Kani Xulam said Turkish forces committed war crimes in Cizre, “attack(ing) civilians (not involved in) fighting.”
Current hostilities began last July, breaching an agreed on ceasefire lasting two years. Thousands of Cizre residents alone are threatened with annihilation.
Weeks of fighting turned neighborhoods to rubble. Turkish snipers man rooftops, shooting anything that moves. Teenager Firat Duymak likely spoke for others, saying “I have no hope for this place anymore.”
He buried his father, killed by Turkish forces in a basement where he took shelter. “When I received his body for burial, it was just a bag of flesh and bones,” he said, the remains of immolation.
Turkish interior minister Efkan Ala said operations in Cizre were completed “in a very successful fashion” - atrocities of no interest to Western leaders.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
posted by Steve Lendman @ 4:17 AM
Webpage: http://sjlendman.blogspot.pt/