GENEVA (Sputnik) — Earlier in the week, the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed willingness to accept the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Hussein in the south-eastern regions of the country.
"We are ready to send a team at the earliest opportunity and, in light of the statement by the [Turkish] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, look forward to swift official confirmation that this mission will indeed be welcomed and fully supported by the Turkish authorities," Colville said at a briefing in Geneva.
Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 as fighting between the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Kurdish pro-independence organization considered to be terrorist by Ankara, and the Turkish army resumed. Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews in Kurdish-populated towns, preventing civilians from fleeing the regions where the military operations are taking place.
