Two residents of a village near the southern Kurdish town of Sîdekan have been arrested by the Turkish army and taken to the other side of the border. They are accused of being "unauthorised" in a "military exclusion zone".
In Southern Kurdistan, two inhabitants of a village in the Bradost region have been arrested by the Turkish occupation forces and taken to Turkish territory. The people concerned are 18-year-old Zedan Nabi Mustafa and Akram Khalil Zikri, who is two years older. The cousins live near the Sîdekan district in the village of Dayla, which administratively belongs to the Hewlêr (Erbil) governorate. According to relatives, they were arrested on Friday morning while taking care of their horses. The Turkish army accused them of being "unauthorised" in a conflict area declared as a "restricted military zone".
According to the information available, Mustafa and Zikri were taken to the base camp of the Turkish army in Derecik in the province of Hakkari, where they will be questioned. The authorities of the South Kurdistan regional government have not yet commented on the incident. However, according to the relatives of the abducted civilians, official bodies from the Bradost are in contact with the Turkish military in order to obtain the release of the men.
The Bradost Triangle forms the border region between three parts of Kurdistan (Turkey-Iraq-Iran). Because of this strategic importance, the Turkish army operates dozens of outposts and bases with heavy armoured units, attack helicopters and special forces in areas of this region. Under the guise of "counterinsurgency" - the fight against the PKK - the troops of Turkey's NATO partner are demonstrably committing a whole series of serious human rights violations and war crimes against the civilian population and guerrillas there time and again. Just earlier this week, a 42-year-old civilian was injured in a Turkish artillery attack in a village not far from the small town of Batîfa.
