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Amnesty: Half a Million Displaced in Turkey Amid Gov’t Crackdown

HeadlineDec 09, 2016

A new report by Amnesty International says an estimated half-million people have been forced from their homes amid a brutal government crackdown in majority-Kurdish regions in Turkey’s southeast. The report warns the widespread displacement and demolition of homes over the last year may amount to “collective punishment,” which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. This comes amid a widening crackdown across Turkey against Kurds and pro-Kurdish activists, lawmakers and journalists. In November, the Turkish government fired 10,000 civil servants, ordered 15 mostly Kurdish news outlets to shut down and raided the offices and detained a dozen journalists from the award-winning Cumhuriyet newspaper on terrorism charges. Also in November, Turkish authorities arrested two leaders and at least 10 other lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, known as the HDP. The HDP is the third largest party in the Turkish Parliament.

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