Sibel Yükler / JINHA

SİNOP – A racist group attacked the Kurdish workers and shopkeepers on September 11 in Gökırmak Neighborhood of Sinop’s Durağan district, the apprehension of the Kurds has increased in Sinop region. Pro-government media reports the situation as “judicial case”; however, a citizen talked to JINHA said, “Actually, everything is different than the media reports.” The Kurds in Sinop stated that their population in the region is close to 30 thousand; however, they have been subjected to discrimination. They also conveyed that their homes had been made unusable; they couldn’t go out and make themselves heard.

A racist group attacked the Kurdish workers and shopkeepers on September 11 in Gökırmak Neighborhood of Sinop’s Durağan district. First the media reported the incident as a fight that broke out over money; however the judicial case emerged to be a racist attack.

The people in Sinop shouted slogans such as, “We don’t want the Kurds here, this region is a Turkish region and it will be”. The pro-government media has still reported the incident as “Fight broke out between two groups”; however, the incident in the Durağan was recorded to a video and the video has been posted in social media. 14 people were wounded and a 16-year-old boy was killed in the incident. Many homes, shops and cars were damaged and Durağan Governorate declared a “curfew” due to the incident.

According to footage of the incident and expressions of the Kurds in region, the incident isn’t a “judicial case”, it is a racist attack against the Kurds.

A citizen named Ahmet, who lives in a Kurdish village in Boyabat, spoke to JINHA. He said, “Actually, the incident is different than the reports in media, we come to their attention just for we are the Kurds. There are four or five Kurdish villages in Durağan, they are very close to each other. We are eight or nine villages in Boyabat. The biggest village is our village. Our grandmothers and grandfathers moved to here from North Irak, Erzurum and Kars. We work in factories around here. They discriminate between us and them just because we are Kurdish. We cannot reach to our relatives and friends. We cannot go out and make ourselves heard. My relatives tell me, “they destroy our home, I cannot stay in the village.” There are more than 100 Kurdish homes in Durağan. If you are Kurdish, you face the discrimination and you are second class people. We are waiting. Many Kurdish people wanted to leave the district due to possible lynch attempt against them.”

(dk/gd)