Two of the witnesses of the Cizre massacre, Cizre Municipality Principal Clerk Metin Fındık and his wife Pınar Fındık spoke about the extent of the massacre committed under orders from Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan and what happened during the massacre process to the representative from the Special Unit formed in United Nations High Commissary for Human Rights with the purpose of investigating human rights violations in Turkey.

Metin Fındık was among those targeted by the Turkish state after the massacre in Cizre and had to go into exile in Switzerland with his family and children. Fındık stays in the refugee camp in Lauseanne, Switzerland. Fındık had talked to ANF on September 20 about what the Turkish state’s massacre in Cizre was like and had called on the international institutions by saying: “I am one of the close witnesses of the Cizre Massacre. The Turkish state is trying to make the witnesses to the massacre disappear. I will never shut up. I am prepared to talk about the events in Cizre with no holds barred.”

A representative from the UN Special Unit, which was formed to investigate Turkey’s human rights violations under UN High Commissary for Human Rights in Geneva because Turkey doesn’t let them in through the border, met with Metin Fındık and his wife Pınar Fındık.

SPECIAL UNIT REPRESENTATIVE: IT’S IMPORTANT FOR US TO INTERVIEW WITNESSES

Metin Fındık spoke to the ANF after the meeting and said he talked about the Turkish state’s massacre in Cizre in complete detail. Fındık said that the special unit representative said “We have a lot of data on Cizre. But interviewing a witness to the process is very important to us,” and that he told the representative how hundreds of civilians were killed by the Turkish state in a process that had been in the works for months, despite the state claiming otherwise.

"I SPOKE OF THE ATROCITIES OF THE TURKISH STATE IN CIZRE"

Fındık said he told the representative how the municipality’s aid for the people were stopped by the soldiers, police and the district governorate. Fındık said, “The people murdered while sitting in front of their homes, the 80 year old Cizre resident killed while going through the trash for bread, the wounded people left to die, the municipality’s ambulances stopped by the police, people burned alive in basements - everything I witnessed through the Cizre massacre process I told to the representative.”

Fındık said he also told the representative how the Turkish state tried to destroy evidence of the massacre. Pınar Fındık also told the representative the details Metin Fındık missed.

“WE ARE TELLING THESE SO THE PERPETRATORS OF THE MASSACRE ARE PUT ON TRIAL”

Fındık said they told the representative that the UN and all international powers and institutions had a responsibility for the massacre in Cizre, and that “We don’t speak of our experience to bring the Cizre massacre to light. The whole world knows what the Turkish state did in Cizre by now, we want those who ordered this massacre to be put on trial. Hundreds of people were killed, somebody has to answer for that.”

Fındık concluded by saying the representative told them that the report on the issue was sent to authorities and they will continue to work on the events in Kurdistan’s cities.