The village of Nenyas (Turkish: Ortaç) in Lice, a district in the Northern Kurdistan province of Amed (Diyarbakir), was exclusively settled by Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century. Almost 10,000 Armenians had lived in Nenyas and 32 other villages in and around Lice until the genocide, in which more than 1.5 million Armenians, Pontic-Greeks and other Christians were murdered between 1915 and 1918 in the then Ottoman Empire. Besides a monastery, there were also 24 Armenian churches in the area. Today, there is nothing left of it. Armenians also do not live in the region anymore.

Since last summer, Nenyas has repeatedly been the scene of power demonstrations of the Turkish army. Like last week Thursday, when seven military helicopters with groups of JÖH (Gendarmerie Special Operations) landed in the middle of the village and surrounded the house of an elderly couple. Officially, to arrest the son of 66-year-old Zinnet Yıldırım and her 78-year-old husband Yemlihan Yıldırım. The raid was carried out on an alleged arrest warrant against the father of four in connection with an investigation on charge of "membership of a terrorist organization". The family had their house stormed and searched three times so far.

Yemlihan Yıldırım recently reported the latest raid, which was marked by violence and torture, to the human rights association IHD. The man contacted the organization to obtain the necessary legal assistance. Besides its commitment for the observance of human rights in Northern Kurdistan and Turkey, where human rights violations are part of daily life, IHD sees another central task in anchoring human rights in the consciousness of the people and building a culture for their defence.

"It was early in the morning around 6.30 am when the soldiers rappelled down from seven helicopters. About two hours later, they surrounded our house and asked first my wife and then me to leave the house. We did so. The soldiers told us that they would make a search. I agreed and went ahead. As I stood in the doorway, I asked the soldiers to take off their boots. Two of them were about to do so when their commander intervened and gave the order that the raid would be carried out with boots. The whole house was covered in mud.”

While the house was searched for the son, Mehmet, Yıldırım was asked by the military commander whether he was Muslim. "This completely upset me. I answered harshly that I was Armenian and asked him if he even knew what it meant to be Muslim. I pointed to the destruction that the soldiers were wreaking in my house and asked the commander if that was compatible with the moral values of Islam at all. It does not matter what ethnic or religious affiliation a person has. What they are doing is wrong,' I said."

Yemlihan Yıldırım was then slapped by the commander of the JÖH units. "My cap fell to the ground. I was hit again as I tried to pick it up. I asked him if he was not ashamed to use violence against me. After all, I was as old as his father. Before I had even finished speaking, he slapped me five more times.”

Zinnet Yıldırım has received three blows to the chest with rifle from a member of the military, according to her husband. The soldier threatened to kill her and to set fire to her house if she did not reveal her son's whereabouts. "My wife is sick and frail," explained Yıldırım and added; "Nevertheless, she had to endure this outrage. We were also threatened with the death of our son."

After the raid on the house, the adjacent animal stable was also searched. The soldiers turned everything upside down there and even rummaged through the feeding stuff, sometimes dumping it on the floor. "I tried to resist them. The soldiers threatened to arrest me. 'I am not afraid, take me with you or kill me now, but stop treating us without dignity’, I said. This is the third time that we had our house raided and were treated this way. It is enough. This oppression must finally come to an end,” said Yıldırım.