JINHA

ADANA – “We have called for peace for years; we even named our children after peace. But they have carried out genocide against us,” said members of the Peace Mothers Assembly in the city of Adana. “There is no place in any book for the crime against humanity in Cizre. Now, we are for war; we will name our children 'war.'"

State forces have carried out massacres in the town of Cizre as they attack cities in Kurdistan with every available form of artillery and weapons in response to the people’s demand of self-government. Hundreds have died in the state forces' attacks. Members of the Peace Mothers Assembly in the city of Adana, Turkey reacted to the massacres in Kurdistan.

Şemsa Bağdu, a member of Adana Peace Mothers, said, “I don’t understand what kind of hatred this is. They criticized Israel’s massacres, but now they do something more savage in Kurdistan. I fiercely condemn the savagery in Kurdistan. We, as Peace Mothers, tried every effort to evacuate the people in the 'basements of savagery' to the hospital. However, the state closed off every option. We said 'peace' and 'freedom.' We said 'don’t let the soldiers and guerrillas die.' But they don’t want to hear our cries.

“You [Turkish State] have killed the people in Sur [district of Diyarbakır] and Cizre [district of Şırnak] for months. Residents tried to evacute the wounded in the basement for days. However, you stopped them and denied access to the ambulances. You killed them all, burning them to death," said Şemsa. "They must know that they cannot annihilate the Kurds. They cannot annihilate them with war. We don’t want other’s lands; we just want our own lands. If you continue to respond to our demand of peace, we will give up this demand. We will stand with our children and we will resist along with them.”

“President Erdoğan says they will rebuild Cizre. We don’t want anything from him. He demolishes, then he says he will rebuild again. We don’t want anything from you; just leave our lands," said Fatma Çığ, another member of the Peace Mothers. "You left our children thirsty and hungry in the basements then you executed all of them. Those children are the sons and daughters of this people. You executed all of them in their own lands with chemical weapons. You cannot scare us. We're not scared anymore."
(fz/fk/gd)