SIRNAK, Turkey—The Turkish authorities have partially lifted an eight-month-long curfew in the southeastern Kurdish town of Sirnak after the army announced completion of its military operation against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in the area.
As of Monday, the curfew is to be lifted from 5:00 am until 10:00 pm every day, local authorities announced.
Thousands of homes and at least three schools were destroyed in months of fighting between the army and Kurdish guerrillas, Rudaw’s Mashallah Dakak reports.
The lifting of the curfew which also banned rights organizations and journalists from visiting the area, will come in phases for different neighborhoods. Two neighborhoods were opened on the first day followed by two more on Tuesday.
The curfew was imposed in March 2016.
The three-decade-old conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the PKK resumed in mid-2015 after the collapse of a ceasefire and peace negotiations between Ankara and the Kurds.
As of last July, more than a quarter million people had been displaced by the conflict in Turkey’s southeast, Human Rights Watch reported.
