Turkish security forces stopped a group of pro-Kurdish politicians Thursday from marching to a town where they say a week-long curfew has triggered a humanitarian crisis and killed 21 civilians. Cizre, near Turkey's borders with Syria and Iraq, has become the latest flashpoint in two months of deepening violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Hundreds have died since Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and the state resumed hostilities after the collapse of cease-fire in July. Pro-Kurdish MPs say civilians in the town, under curfew because of the fighting, are in a dire situation, with the dead going unburied and food and water running short. Interior Minister Selami Altinok said operations by security forces had killed more than 30 militants since last week and led to the seizure of 800 kg of explosives. He said only one civilian had died in the town. Parliamentarians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and its co-leader Selahattin Demirtas started a 90-km march Wednesday toward Cizre after security forces halted their convoy, party officials said. The group, which returned to a nearby town after staging a brief sit-down protest, included EU Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Muslum Dogan, members of an interim Cabinet leading Turkey to a Nov. 1 election. The HDP has accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AK Party of using the bloodshed to whip up nationalist sentiment ahead of the vote. HDP offices have been attacked, and some set ablaze, by nationalist crowds this week. "What is underway in Cizre, a blockade of the town and a seven-day curfew, is completely illegal," said one of the HDP lawmakers, Saruhan Oluc, adding that 100,000 people faced food shortages and the wounded were unable to reach the hospital. Altinok said the politicians had been prevented from reaching Cizre for their own safety.
