To whom it may concern:
We hereby would like to attract the attention of the international community, human rights institutions and bodies to the extremely grave situation in the besieged town of Nusaybin, which has been under round-the-clock curfew for over 77 days.
On May 26, after severe Turkish bombardments and continuous tank shelling targeting entire neighborhoods in the town of Nusaybin, the Kurdish Civil Protection Units (YPS) issued a statement announcing that they had withdrawn from the town as of May 25 to prevent further harm to civilian population. However, state security forces have continued bombing and shelling even more fiercely since then. The Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) took action along with civil society organizations to prevent a repetition of the massacre in Cizre, where special Turkish police and military forces burnt about two hundred people to death in three basements, and to secure the safe exit of civilians from the besieged zone.
Until now over 70 people were transferred from the conflict zone, including many children. Turkish security forces detained all of these people. We have received first-hand information from lawyers, families, and our MP in Nusaybin that the detainees were severely tortured, despite the propagandistic scenes in the pro-government media and press in which Turkish security forces show mercy to the detainees.
With the firm conviction that people deserve better than a choice between being subjected to violation of personal dignity and torture on the one hand or being bombed to death on the other, we call on the international community to carefully observe the situation in Nusaybin and employ all means at their disposal to stop the ongoing torture of detainees and the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the town. There are still many people entrapped there.
HDP FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMISSION