JINHA

ŞIRNEX – Turkey’s women’s anti-war group Women’s Initiative for Peace, after visiting the besieged Kurdish town of Cizre, have headed to the nearby town of Silopi. Women co-mayors described the distressing situation in the town to the activists.

The group Women’s Initiative for Peace has spent the last two days in the Kurdish town of Cizre, where for nine days Turkish security forces maintained a bloody 24-hour curfew. Now, the group has headed to the similarly besieged town of Silopi, nearby.

Women co-mayors from the area, speaking outside the Yılmaz Güney Culture Center alongside the activists, described the grim situation in the town. Rabia Tekas, co-mayor of the local municipality of Görümlü, called for the attacks to end immediately and for the Turkish state to return to the Kurdish peace and resolution process.

Activity in the town shuts down at 5 p.m. because of the risk of police attacks, said Silopi co-mayor Emine Esmer. Women’s Initiative for Peace member Nimet Tanrıkulu promised that the women would relate what they saw in Silopi.

The women activists then paid their condolences to the families of those killed in the town.

(dk/gc/cm)