The Turkish authorities on Friday lifted a nine-day curfew in a key district in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir after heavy fighting with Kurdish militants but then promptly reimposed the measure. The local authorities had kept the curfew in place since December 2 in the central Sur district of Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey's Kurdish-majority south-east, for an operation against suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
The curfew was lifted overnight, allowing residents to inspect scenes of devastation in some areas, with houses reduced to rubble and buildings pockmarked by fighting, an AFP correspondent said. The governorate then reimposed the curfew from 1400 GMT until further notice, just hours after it had been lifted, saying this was necessary to remove barricades, fill in trenches and carry out bomb disposal work. An AFP correspondent said that hundreds of people had taken advantage of the lifting of the curfew to leave the area after being subjected to the security lockdown.
"We will move in with friends who live in another district," said one Sur resident, Mehmet Cengiz, as he moved his family and furniture in a van. "What a waste." Meanwhile, boys sifted the ground looking for spent bullets while women sat down and wept at the sight of the extent of the damage.
The historic Ottoman-era Fatihpasa mosque was severely damaged by fire, which pro-government Turkish media had blamed on the PKK. Meanwhile sandbag barricades and trenches - which the authorities said were set up by the PKK - were still in evidence Friday. A police officer, who was a member of special forces, was killed in a shootout in Sur with militants of the PKK on December 5 during the lockdown. The curfew in Sur was imposed days after prominent Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci was killed in broad daylight in the narrow streets of the district on November 28, in a crime that remains unsolved. Local resident Muharrem Dolek said that he fled Sur on the second day of the curfew. "I told the police (guarding entry to the area) that I was on the edge psychologically. They told me 'leave, but you won't be able to come back,'" he said.