JINHA

ŞIRNEX – After 20-year-old Mevlide Özalp was slain in one of the “basements of savagery” in Cizre, her father Ahmet Özalp described the trenches that the people of Cizre dug to protect the people of the town, including his daughter.

Cizre resident Mevlide Özalp, 20, was slain in the “basements of atrocity” in the town, when Turkish state forces attacked basements where the wounded had taken refuge. Mevlide’s family recently identified her body at the temporary forensic medical institute set up at the Habur Border Gate.

Mevlide’s family was among those who were forced out of their villages in the area in the 1990s due to state violence. She was just one year old when her family came to the town center of Cizre from the village of Dirsekli. Mevlide grew up and attended school in Cizre, but she did not accept what her family was forced to go through, nor the Turkish identity forced upon her. She was just 20 years old when she was killed in the basement.

Mevlide’s father Ahmet Özalp said that Mevlide could not leave her people when the “24-hour curfews” began in Cizre.

“You see what Cizre is like. The whole world knows what was done there,” said Ahmet. “Mevlide was in the basement. She called us for help, but we couldn’t get there in time. They [state forces] didn’t let us.”

Ahmet said that the state opened fire on the families whenever they tried to reach those trapped in the basement. The family attempted to call Mevlide while she was in the basement, but she could not answer the phone because of the ongoing attacks by state forces.

“No one heard our cry,” said Ahmet, who noted that the families had issued an urgent international call for help as the attacks continued.

“The path our youth went down was one of honor and dignity. It wasn’t an individual path, but a social one,” said Ahmet. He explained that the people of Cizre dug trenches in order to protect themselves from the state.

“Whenever our youth went through an ID checkpoint, they would send them straight to jail,” Ahmet said. “We dug the trenches so that our youth would not be jailed. We dug them to protect ourselves. No one came from outside and forced us to dig these trenches. Everyone stood up in their own home so as not to accept this cruelty.”

(ht/gc/cm)