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UN Ready to Investigate Human Rights Violations in Southeast Turkey

© AFP 2023 / ILYAS AKENGIN Damaged houses and a mosque are pictured in the historical district in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on May 5, 2016
Damaged houses and a mosque are pictured in the historical district in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on May 5, 2016 - Sputnik International
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is ready to send a mission to Turkey to investigate human rights violations in the country's south-east, inhabited by the Kurdish population, OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville said Friday.

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.

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In this regard, Colville underscored that "full and unhindered access for the UN human rights team to the affected population and locations, authorities, documentation and other relevant materials in south-east Turkey is essential for any credible fact-finding exercise."

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.

 

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