Turkish security forces blockaded a village in Nusaybin district of Mardin province beaten thirty nine villagers in front of others at the village square where several houses were set on fire after raking them with gunfire, Turkish media reported.
According to Artı Gerçek news portal, lawyer Hasan Özgen, who met with thirty-nine detained villagers, quoted villagers saying they were beaten three to four hours by police and gendarme officers at the village square.
Özgen also said that security forces dispersed villagers who held a sit-in protest against the detentions of their fellow villagers.
According to Habertürk daily, citing security sources, two top-level Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants were killed in Koruköy on Saturday.
After Turkish military blockaded the village on Feb. 11, a delegation of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party members who were trying to go into the village due to claims of torture was denied entry.
Villagers talked to Dihaber by telephone said they were not allowed to leave their houses or have contact with the outside world, adding that they and their animals face food and water shortages.
“They have been doing here whatever they did in Şırnak and in Sur before that,” said HDP deputy Leyla Birlik, who was in the delegation that was not allowed in to the village.
The HDP on Sunday called on national and international institutions to investigate what has been happening in Koruköy.
The PKK has been waging a four-decade–long war against the Turkish state to carve out an autonomous zone in Turkey’s Kurdish Southeast. More than 40,000 people are believed to have died in PKK attacks and clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK.
