Categories
ahvalnews Articles

‘We want their bones if they are dead, that’s all!’

“Being able to hold their dead body, to hug them, is something else. It must be a special feeling, to hug their lifeless body, to send them on their last journey. (…) I think that having a grave must provide some closure, the sense of knowing they are resting here. Sharing your problems with them, […]

Categories
ahvalnews Articles

Turkey is selling a story about refugees, and the EU is buying it

Before the European Union and Turkey signed an agreement in 2016 to limit the number of Syrian refugees heading to Europe in return for aid to help those who had fled the war to Turkey, I was among a group of academics and activists who work on refugee issues in Turkey invited to Berlin to […]

Categories
Articles

End of dialogue fails to stem the tide of death in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict

“Regardless of the consequences, you have to talk, you must not stop communicating, you should always find people who you can talk to among them. We tried to use every opportunity for dialogue. The absence of dialogue encourages those who want violence. Peace requires taking risks.” These are the words Irish former Foreign Minister Dermot […]

Categories
Articles

Unpunished atrocities against women show ISIS mentality alive

I met her on a cold winter day in 2015. She was staying at the Şırnak Yezidi camp in southeastern Turkey, which had originally been established as a dormitory for mineworkers. The camp in Şırnak was one of the biggest Yezidi camps. When Yezidis had come to the mineworker dormitories, tents had been set up […]

Categories
Articles

This must be hell

There is a picture in front of me. In the photo, villagers from a small southeastern town of Turkey, alongside several deputies and politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are trying to put out a fire. Once again, there are many wildfires in this predominantly Kurdish part of Turkey. The Turkish military started […]