JINHA

ŞIRNEX – The ongoing Turkish state blockade and of the Kurdish town of Cizre has left pregnant women and infants at risk, women trapped in their homes told JINHA.

On September 4, Turkish police declared a curfew in the city of Cizre, in Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey). This began what has now become a six-day assault on the city. Police have been shooting anyone and anything that moves in the town. State forces have deployed heavy weaponry, grenades and tanks in residential neighborhoods. Pregnant women and infants are under perhaps the greatest threat from the blockade.

Pregnant women have been giving birth at home, under unsafe conditions, due to the police blockade of ambulance access. Cizre resident Beyaz Özkan cannot have a vaginal birth at home due to her previous Cesarean birth. When Parliamentary representatives intervened to attempt to get an ambulance to the woman as she began having labor pains, police told them, “we can’t guarantee your safety.”

In spite of everything, the people of Cizre have refused to abandon their homes—in part for fear of what would happen to their homes and to young residents resisting the police if they leave. In the beseieged Nur neighborhood, residents have begun drilling holes in the walls of neighboring houses to reach one another. JINHA reporters reached families who have gathered in one of these houses for safety.

“Pregnant women are giving birth at home because anyone who goes out on the street is a direct target,” said Cizre resident Elif Yıldız. She said that water was the main problem for the families trapped inside. “We can last maybe two, three more days without water,” said Elif, who said that they also suffered from shortages of milk, baby food and diapers.

Elif noted that Cizre had become a place “no different from Kobanê,” the Kurdish city in the Rojava autonomous region in Syria that survived a five-month siege by Daesh. Saying that the people of Cizre had always protested injustices elsewhere, Elif said that now, “everyone needs to stand up for Cizre.”

(ma/gc/cm)