Mizgin Adım/JINHA

ŞIRNEX – Lawyers investigating the deaths of civilian women shot by Turkish soldiers on the Rojava border says Turkey is engaged in violations of international agreements and human rights.

Several women have been shot and killed while trying to cross the Turkish-Syrian border that divides Northern Kurdistan in Turkey from Rojava (Western Kurdistan). On May 18, 2014 soldiers shot and killed Saada Darwich in front of her two children and her father. Then, on February 29, 2015 soldiers again shot a 32-year-old woman named Nezahat Celal Sadun.

Sertaç Özkan, a lawyer in the Saada Darwich case, notes that as a signatory to international refugee law, Turkey is obliged to open its borders to refugees fleeing war in their country, like the Darwich family.

Saada Darwich’s father, Methi reported that after Saada was shot, although they screamed for help, the nearby soldiers did not come to their aid. Finally, Methi dragged his daughter for one hundred meters to reach an armored vehicle. It took four hours for them to reach the hospital, at which point Saada had died of blood loss. During an investigation into the incident, the military prosecutor said there was no reason to take action against the soldier, because he had “wounded someone with a warning shot.”

Lawyer Filiz Ölmez, who is following the border killing cases, says lawyers are worried that the courts will reach the same conclusion in the case of Nezahat Celal Sadun, who was shot near the border between the Rojava city of Qamişlo and the town of Cizre, in Turkey. Filiz noted that Nezahat had not stepped foot on Turkish soil when she was shot, and that opening fire on her was a clear legal violation.

“Turkey has other borders,” said Filiz. “Who, for example, knows of someone killed when trying to cross the Greek border? But the situation is different in Kurdistan.”

A woman named H.H. also reports that she was raped by border soldiers on July 16, 2014. Lawyers say the rape of someone fleeing her country, as H.H. was, is a crime against humanity.

(mg/cm)