Kurdish child run over by armored vehicle in Turkey, severely injured
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A five-year-old Kurdish child was badly injured after being run over by a Turkish armored vehicle on Wednesday in southeastern Turkey, according to local media. This comes despite warnings from human rights organizations and Kurdish politicians that the conduct of security forces in the area endangers civilian lives.
Nine children have died and 13 others have been injured since 2018 in accidents involving Turkish security forces armored vehicles in Kurdish areas of Turkey. Nure Dikce, 5, became the 14th child injured when she was hit by an armored vehicle.
The incident was captured on video and shows a fast-approaching vehicle driving down a residential street in the Kurdish-populated town of Viransehir in Urfa province also known as Sanliurfa, hitting the girl. Around two dozen people are seen in the video running to help the child, whose lower body was run over.
The accident drew the ire of people and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on social media.
“Are cities with high populations of Kurds a security problem for you?” Urfa deputy Ayse Surucu tweeted, expressing her anger at Turkey’s security forces.
Urfa Bar Association, which has previously warned of the threat armed vehicles possess, is investigating Dikce’s case, according to its president Mehmet Velat.
Last month, a seven-year-old child was killed by an armored vehicle in Sirnak. The HDP described his death as a part of a “massacre,” saying “death involving security forces and the vehicles they use in Kurdish provinces are not accidents.”
Armored cars have injured and killed several children in the Kurdish areas in Turkey in the past three years, according to the country’s Human Rights Foundation.
There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times denied the very existence of Kurds. The word “Kurdistan” is banned from parliament, Kurdish private media and Kurdish political parties have repeatedly been shut down, and the HDP is under immense pressure with hundreds of its members thrown in jail.
In a string of attacks on Kurds and the HDP, a family of seven members was brutally killed in Konya province on July 30. A 43-year-old Kurd was also killed in the same district on July 21.
Deniz Poyraz, the daughter of an HDP official, was killed when the party’s office in Izmir came under attack in mid-June.
Kurdish tourists from the Kurdistan Region have also been attacked in Turkey. A family from Erbil was assaulted in Mersin province in mid-May and claimed that the perpetrators cursed at them for being Kurds.
The US State Department’s annual human rights report from 2020 painted a bleak picture of the human rights situation in the country.
"Significant human rights issues included: reports of arbitrary killings; suspicious deaths of persons in custody; forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary arrest and continued detention of tens of thousands of persons, including opposition politicians and former members of parliament, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and employees of the U.S. Mission..." the report said.
Nine children have died and 13 others have been injured since 2018 in accidents involving Turkish security forces armored vehicles in Kurdish areas of Turkey. Nure Dikce, 5, became the 14th child injured when she was hit by an armored vehicle.
The incident was captured on video and shows a fast-approaching vehicle driving down a residential street in the Kurdish-populated town of Viransehir in Urfa province also known as Sanliurfa, hitting the girl. Around two dozen people are seen in the video running to help the child, whose lower body was run over.
The accident drew the ire of people and members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on social media.
“Are cities with high populations of Kurds a security problem for you?” Urfa deputy Ayse Surucu tweeted, expressing her anger at Turkey’s security forces.
Urfa Bar Association, which has previously warned of the threat armed vehicles possess, is investigating Dikce’s case, according to its president Mehmet Velat.
Last month, a seven-year-old child was killed by an armored vehicle in Sirnak. The HDP described his death as a part of a “massacre,” saying “death involving security forces and the vehicles they use in Kurdish provinces are not accidents.”
Armored cars have injured and killed several children in the Kurdish areas in Turkey in the past three years, according to the country’s Human Rights Foundation.
There is a long history of animosity and conflict over Kurdish issues and rights in Turkey. The state has at times denied the very existence of Kurds. The word “Kurdistan” is banned from parliament, Kurdish private media and Kurdish political parties have repeatedly been shut down, and the HDP is under immense pressure with hundreds of its members thrown in jail.
In a string of attacks on Kurds and the HDP, a family of seven members was brutally killed in Konya province on July 30. A 43-year-old Kurd was also killed in the same district on July 21.
Deniz Poyraz, the daughter of an HDP official, was killed when the party’s office in Izmir came under attack in mid-June.
Kurdish tourists from the Kurdistan Region have also been attacked in Turkey. A family from Erbil was assaulted in Mersin province in mid-May and claimed that the perpetrators cursed at them for being Kurds.
The US State Department’s annual human rights report from 2020 painted a bleak picture of the human rights situation in the country.
"Significant human rights issues included: reports of arbitrary killings; suspicious deaths of persons in custody; forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary arrest and continued detention of tens of thousands of persons, including opposition politicians and former members of parliament, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and employees of the U.S. Mission..." the report said.