Silopi

History

Due to its proximity to Iraqi Kurdistan, Silopi was a major staging ground for Operation Provide Comfort and housed in nearby bases a combined 2500 American, British, and French forces. In the late summer and fall of 2015, following the 2014 Kobanî protests and breakdown of the 2013–2015 PKK–Turkey peace process, which were part of the broader third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, local Kurdish youth and activists, with some of them being affiliated with the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), and later YPS, organized popular protests and riots throughout Turkish Kurdistan and declared Silopi itself to be an "autonomous zone." The Turkish government responded by imposing curfews on the city, which eventually escalated into a full-scale military confrontation between Kurdish youth affiliated with the YDG-H/YPS and allegedly PKK on one side, and the Turkish army, Gendarmerie and special forces of the police on the other. The so-called “curfew” on the city has been described by observers as a euphemism for a military siege. The worst hit neighbourhood was Başak, in which on 7 August 2015 Kurdish youth held off the police for four hours. while pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Faysal Sarıyıldız said that the casualties were civilians and that he had seen no sign of armed militants. Ferhat Encu, an HDP parliamentarian who lived in Silopi during the fighting, told dpa in March 2016 that the city was being shelled by artillery fire. Alp Kayserilioğlu of Lower Class Magazine also reported on reckless "heavy artillery" shelling on the city by the Turkish Army. Furthermore, Amnesty reported that Turkish security forces prevented ambulances from entering areas under curfew. In one incident cited by Amnesty, the body of a man killed during…