JINHA

AMED – With 4-month-old baby Elif Su Aslan and her mother Seda Aslan trapped in the besieged Sur district of Diyarbakır, Seda has reported on the child’s condition in a recent telephone conversation.

Around 200 civilians are trapped in the Sur district of Diyarbakır, as Turkish state forces besiege the area. Among them are infants, the elderly and the wounded. In one building, a group of between 30 and 35 people have been trapped for days in a basement as state forces maintain an assault on the location.

Seda Aslan is trapped in the basement with her 4-month-old baby Elif Su, as is Seniha Sürer, a Sur resident. In a telephone conversation with the Sürer family on Sunday night, Seda reported on the situation in the basement. The recording of the telephone conversation is as follows:

Sultan Sürer: How’s Elif, how’s her body? (Sound of children in the background.)

Seda Aslan: She’s not well at all. She’s constantly crying. She can’t get to sleep at night from the fear. (A voice says “mom” in the background.)

Sultan Sürer: Put some cotton or something in the baby’s ears. How’s my mother? How are the children?

Seda Aslan: How could we be? We’re not good at all.

Sultan Sürer: These men have no conscience. Is there anything you want to say to us?

(Seda becomes emotional).

Seda Aslan: We have no way out of here anyway.

Sultan Sürer: You’ll get out, you’ll get out. We won’t stop hoping; God willing, you’ll get out of there.

(Family member Nezir Sürer asks to speak.)

Nezir Sürer: Seda, how are you?

Seda Aslan: The same.

(Telephone call is dropped.)

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