I am like Diyarbakır: Grieving, furious, resentful but still, I stand. Last Friday 370 civil society organizations were closed by the government under the allegation of supporting terrorist groups. 50 of these organizations are based in Diyarbakir, in my city. There are associations that support the families who lost their houses during the curfews or […]
Author: Nurcan Baysal
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Aaaauuu…. ttttttoooo …. Shooooooowww
Aaaauuu…. ttttttoooo …. Shooooooowww The alarm rang at its usual time of 7:30. I woke up the children and rushed into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Normally, while preparing breakfast, I would watch news on the TV. This was before the closing of Kurdish TV and alternative media channels. There are no trustworthy media channels […]
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Writing from Diyarbakır under Blockgade
Writing from Diyarbakır under Blockgade Diyarbakır, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish people, has been one of the main locations of armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state. Since August 2015, numerous curfews have been declared in the city and its villages, hundreds of civilians have been killed, the center of the 5000 […]
Aren’t we going to question “why did these 1552 people die”? The Diyarbakır Branch of Human Rights Association (İHD) has just released a new report, publishing the results of the last year war between the Turkish government and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). According to İHD’s report, between 24 July 2015-24 July 2016, 1552 people […]
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My Speech on Yazidi Women
My Speech on Yazidi Women I met her on a dark night, in Baadre, a Yazidi village, on the border of Mosul, in Iraq. It was the beginning of 2015. She was staying with other women who were saved from Islamic State, ISIS. Baadre was one of the biggest Yazidi village in South Kurdistan. The […]
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Curfews in Turkish Kurdistan
Curfews in Turkish Kurdistan It was last January. I was in Brussels for a European Parliament meeting. A European journalist asked me about the curfews in Turkish Kurdistan. He told me that there were also curfews in Paris after the ISIS attack. He did not understand why Kurdish people were so angry about the curfews. […]