JINHA

AMED - Women are taking an active role in the effort to stop civilian massacres in the Lice area of Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey), according to a delegation reporting from the site.

Three days ago, Turkish soldiers launched an operation in the triangle between the towns of Lice, Hani and Kocaköy, in the largely Kurdish Diyarbakır province. As military deployments began, hundreds of residents flocked to the rural area of Hurê (Gömeç in Turkish) to stop soldiers and guerrillas from clashing. A delegation of activists and elected representatives headed to the area to observe the situation.

Çağlar Demirel, a Parliamentary representative for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said that the current situation exceeded the violence of the 1990s, when thousands were killed and millions forced to leave their homes in the Kurdish region. At the time, the Lice area was particularly devastated, with soldiers burning and destroying the town of Lice and many nearby villages.

"The people most affected by this war are women," said Çağlar. "The women we met with said that in the 1990s, they migrated without being aware of what was going on, but that today no one will make them leave this place. Our women are using their bodies as shields to stop this war."

The delegation called for support for the effort to stop the war.

(şa/gc/cm)