JINHA

MÊRDÎN - Turkish police have declared a curfew and blockaded the largely Kurdish town of Nusaybin. Gunshots and explosions rocked the town throughout the night last night.
Yesterday at 7:00 p.m., Turkish state officials announced a curfew in the town of Nusaybin.

Police attempted to enter several neighborhoods in armored vehicles. As police attacked with heavy weapons and grenade launchers, local residents took to their balconies to hold a noise demonstration in protest. Women joined the noise demonstrations with ululations.

Neighborhood youth, meanwhile, formed self-defense units to stop the police from entering the neighborhoods. At one point, the youth gounded a drone deployed by state security forces and smashed it with hammers.

Internet was cut in some neighborhoods. Police stopped traffic on the historic Silk Road with tanks and armored vehicles and completely closed off access to the Nusaybin district. Enise Güneyli, who represents Nusaybin's province of Mardin in Turkey's Parliament for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), denounced the police attack.
"The press and the public must not remain silent in the face of this attempt at an atrocity," said Enise.

(gc/cm)