In the course of armed conflict that restarted in the Kurdish region of Turkey after general elections in June 2015, 186 civilians most of which are women or children have died so far, hundreds of them were injured and thousands of people were arrested. Concerning co-mayors who are members of our union, 17 of them are now arrested while 25 of them were suspended from their duty and 6 of them were issued arrest warrants since July 2015. In order to end human rights violations in our region, there is an urgent need for revitalizing peace talks for resolution of Kurdish question in Turkey.

Since the August of this year, as a reaction to repressive policies of Turkish state that resurged, peoples assemblies in many Kurdish cities and towns voiced their demands for self-governance. These demands for self-governance, -aiming at achieving decentralized structural transformation against centralism- were responded by Turkish government with disproportionate state-led violence. In Kurdish cities where demands were self-governance raised, especially in Cizre, Sur, Silvan, Nusaybin, Dargecit, Silopi and Yüksekova, the Turkish government declared curfews which have continued for weeks during which civilians have been killed by Turkish security forces while mass migration of residents of cities under curfew continue.