CHP urges lifting curfew in Cizre, demands government explanation

Turkey's main social-democrat party has called on Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu to explain the reason for the state of siege in Cizre in the southeastern province of ??rnak while also demanding an end to the week-long curfew in the area. 

All of Cizre's 150,000 people have effectively been placed under arrest, something that is not acceptable in any country governed by the rule of law, Republican People's Party's (CHP) Deputy Chair Sezgin Tanr?kulu said Sept. 10, speaking at a joint press conference in parliament along with his party's deputy parliamentary group chair, Levent Gök.

If Turkey is ruled by law, then the government should immediately end the curfew, Tanr?kulu said, noting that a one-week curfew cannot exist in any place on the world.

"How can a travel ban be placed on ministers? [On Sept. 9], I spoke to Parliamentary Speaker [?smet Y?lmaz] and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmu?. If you care for parliament's reputation, then you should end this situation about the deputies. Either you should lift the curfew or not prevent the deputies and the ministers from reaching there," Tanr?kulu said, warning that insisting on bans would lead to further public indignation.

A co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirta?, and other HDP parliamentarians started a 90-kilometer-long march on Sept. 9 toward Cizre after security forces halted their convoy. On Sept. 10, they launched a sit-down protest on a hillside near the border with Syria and Iraq after their path was blocked by soldiers with riot shields, party officials said. 

Cizre has been under curfew since last week as security forces seek to force the submission of locals who have dug trenches to keep out armored personnel carriers and erected...