Turkish state turned to Gever (Yuksokova) after its barbaric attacks on Cizre and Silvan. Turkish governor declared curfew in the early evening hours in Gever. Immediately following the curfew Turkish police started its assault on the Kurdish town in Eastern Turkey. Support to the troops, police, special forces and Syrian jihadist ISIL goons accompanying the Turkish forces also came from the Turkish air force fighter jets and Israeli supported heron reconnaissance flights.

However, entering the town was not as easy as the government forces hoped. The residents, knowing the destruction the Turkish forces extract on the Kurdish towns they attacked previously were prepared. Streets were blocked by trenches which prevented the Turkish forces to enter the neighborhoods. This caused the police and the special forces to open random fire to houses and streets for revenge.

This random shooting and threats, on the other hand, caused the residents in mass to defy the curfew and come out of their homes to protest the unnecessary police shooting at their homes and streets. Jeering, whistling and making noises with pots and pans, the Gever residents protested the Turkish state’s uncalled attack against their town.

Kurdish towns have been under heavy Turkish state assaults recently for several reasons. One reason is to punish the Kurds for voting overwhelmingly for the pro-Kurdish, progressive, leftist HDP party in the recent elections. The other reason is to prevent the democratic initiative the Kurds started to have the citizens participate in real, day-to-day democracy by declaring self-rule. The towns that declared democratic self-rule after the Turkish president Erdogan declared a regime change without consulting any democratic body in the country have all been under heavy Turkish attack. All mayors or the co-mayors of these towns are either arrested or under threat. Trying to bring a change to the way people are governed in Turkey, Kurds, with the leadership of the leftist, progressive HDP party have started a system of co-mayors. In the towns where the HDP has a mayor, a woman is also elected to be the co-mayor. This way women’s participation is encouraged as well as making sure that the residents have a say in the governance of the towns.

In Gever, the security forces were only able to advance only few hundred yards and move very slowly due to street trenches. To move further the police started to demolish walls and fences that separated the houses and the yards at 3:00 am in the morning.

Joining forces with the resisting residents of the neighborhoods under attack, people from the surrounding neighborhoods came together on the streets to change the entire Geven into an area of mass resistance against invasion by the Turkish police.

Having lost control over the entire town, the military armored vehicles were called to enter the streets the police could not take. Military personnel fired pepper and tear gas into the streets trying to push back the crowds determined to resist the curfew. However the peoples’ resistance continued until the military vehicles were also forced to retreat. Deniz Bulbun, the co-speaker for the Gever Peoples’ Assembly Coordination Organization said, “the massacring forces should know one thing very clearly that we will never take a step back. Freedom is in the streets. We are inviting all our people to rise up.”

The police and military forces, on the other hand, kept on firing randomly to homes, streets and on the residents. A bomb, similar to an RPG, fell near three young men and exploded and all three men lost their feet. Mehmet Sait Arici died on the spot the other two were seriously injured.

When ambulances were prevented to reach the site of the police murder, neighbors put the wounded into their private cars and tried taking them to the hospital. However, the police blocked the streets with their armored vehicles and prevented the wounded from being taken to the hospital even in cars.

Bleeding heavily, the wounded were again taken out of cars and rushed to nearby homes where the citizens tried taking care of them. Finally after long negotiations, the police allowed the ambulance to enter the street so the body of Arici could be taken to the mortuary. However, the people did not give the body because they demanded ambulances to be allowed to also take the wounded to the hospital. Not able to convince the residents, the police was forced to open the way for the ambulances for all the wounded. Wounded Naim Noyan lost his life in the hospital because he was not brought in earlier.

Kurdish town of Gever (Yuksekova) is still under heavy attack from Turkish forces as of reporting.

Sendika.Org News (Mehmet Bayram)