In Silvan, a district of Diyarbakır province, where a curfew that was declared last week is still in place, about 6,000 locals have left their homes and moved elsewhere to ensure their safety. Because locals could no longer go about their daily lives due to the ongoing clashes and the curfew, they started moving their elderly and female family members and children to nearby towns. Some photos from Silvan recently shared on social media networks show the district resembling a battlefield due to the clashes. Many offices and houses have been damaged by rockets and gunshots in the district. Those photos also show some locals rushing to leave the district with their suitcases and boxes, particularly in the neighborhoods of Konak, Tekel, Mescit and Selahattin, where clashes are greater compared to other parts of the district. Some people are also seen in photos carting their elderly family members who cannot walk in wheelbarrows. Most of the Silvan locals choose to go to Batman province or the city of Diyarbakır, media reports say. Minibus drivers ferrying passengers from Silvan to Batman say the bus and minibus stations are very crowded because of the large numbers of locals who want to leave the district as soon as possible. "People in Silvan are mainly moving to Batman. We hope this atmosphere of violence and unrest will end as soon as possible," one of the minibus drivers told the media on Wednesday. Silvan, one of the towns where tension has escalated over the past weeks, was placed under curfew for a day last week following tension between security officers and members of the terrorist PKK-affiliated Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H). The clashes between the two sides are still ongoing across the district. Nearly 13,000 locals left homes in Semdinli In addition to Silvan, nearly 13,000 locals have left their homes across Semdinli, a district in Şırnak province, since last week. For instance, only 100 people are now living in Semdinli's Şapatan town, whose population is 5,000. According to media reports, 10 houses were completely destroyed due to a bombardment recently conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against PKK terrorists. After the bombardment in the town, which is also known as Altınsu, thousands fled after the TSK called on locals to leave their homes for security reasons, a report published by the Evrensel daily said. Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Van deputy Adem Geveri told the daily: "The number of people living in Şapatan was 5,000, but it has fallen to 100 as of today [Tuesday]. The number of people across Şırnak province who have left their homes since the start of clashes and curfews has reached 13,000." Geveri claimed soldiers forced people to leave their homes, adding: "Soldiers make announcements not only here [in Sapatan] but also in the city of Sırnak, calling on people to leave their homes. Can you think of a state that calls on its citizens to leave their homes in a city with a police department, a regimental command and a governor's office? They say if not [if the locals do not leave their homes], they will not be responsible for any possible deaths." The recent migration of locals in tense predominantly Kurdish towns is reminiscent of the forced migration of Kurds in the 1990s. Tens of thousands of Kurds were forced to migrate due to clashes and curfews in the region in the 1990s, during which state-sponsored violence was the norm, martial law was in place and dozens of people were executed in unsolved murders almost every day. Violence in the country has dramatically escalated over the past weeks. Turkey recently launched strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) targets in Syria and PKK targets in Turkey and northern Iraq as part of what it calls a two-pronged war against the terrorist groups. The violence has effectively shelved a settlement process with the PKK that began in 2012 and its accompanying cease-fire. More than 40 members of the security forces have been killed in clashes with the PKK or in attacks by the terrorist group since violence resumed last month.
