Turkish authorities imposed a one-day curfew in 16 villages of Tatvan in the southeastern Bitlis region to carry out operations against the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Curfews have been imposed on various occasions in the Kurdish-dominated southeast over the past four years after the collapse of peace negotiations between Turkish authorities and the Kurds.
The Turkish army constantly carries out operations in northern and eastern states, such as Van, Sirnak, Mardin, Hakkari, Diyarbakir, Batman and Bingol.
In early July, authorities imposed a complete curfew on five regions in the southeastern Hakkari province.
In a statement, the office of Hakkari Governor Idris Akbiyik justified the curfew, saying the state was falling victim to “acts of sabotage by terrorist separatist organizations and other groups, which has negatively affected its economic and social development.”
Ankara deems the PKK a terrorist organization.
According to a 2018 Turkish rights report, Diyarbakır witnessed the largest amounts of curfews, with 190, followed by Mardin with 53, Hakkari with 23 and Sirnak with 13.
The report added that around 1,809,000 citizens were negatively affected by the collapse of peace negotiations, which kicked off in 2012 and came to a halt in 2015.
Eleven Kurdish cities witnessed 332 curfews between August 2015 and October 3, 2018. The curfew forced more than 250,000 people to flee their homes in 2016 due to the military and security operations against the PKK.
The PKK launched an insurgency in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and United States.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes against Kurdish positions in border regions in Syria and Iraq.
