ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish government report says that some 6,694 homes have sustained damage in the Kurdish city of Silopi from months of clashes between security forces and pro-PKK guerrillas in Turkey’s southeast. The report adds that 27 homes have been turned to rubble. But locals say the number of affected homes is far greater than cited by the government. “The government has only considered the damage that the public properties suffered while it has failed to pay much attention to harm to private property,” said local journalist Sebahaddin Quinco, who has investigated the cases. For instance, he said, 241 homes were totally leveled to the ground in the clashes but were not mentioned in the report The army’s military operations were completed in Silopi on February 24 after several months of fighting and a month-long curfew that started in mid-December last year. The government said nearly 700 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas were killed, a figure strongly disputed by the rebels, who claimed over 120 civilians were killed in the military attacks targeting private homes inside Kurdish cities. The PKK has also denied it was directly involved in the operations and said an affiliated group known as the Patriotic Democratic Youth (YDG-H) fought the army and security forces deployed in the southeast of the country. The army said it had dispatched some 10,000 troops to the area for the operations, which often expanded into Kurdish territories inside Iraq and Syria as Turkish airpower targeted PKK’s mountain sites. Last month, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced on a visit to the Kurdish city of Mardin that the government would allocate some $9 billion to rebuild the region and invest in long-term projects. But critics question the government’s sincerity in compensating the victims and believe the report is flawed. “The estimate of the damages was conducted by a government body and that has amplified people’s doubts and anger,” human rights lawyer Erdal Kunur, who has studied the report, told Rudaw. “People think the report was compiled on unreasonable grounds. The committee didn’t carry out a thorough investigation but randomly gathered the data,” Kunur said. He claimed that investigators have made estimates about damages in parts of the city without a visit. He added that in most cases the government plans to compensate the affected families with apartments, instead of houses that were destroyed. “We talk about very crowded families with many children who are not accustomed to live in apartments,” said Erdal who represents several families in court.
