CHP: Long recovery ahead for Diyarbak?r's devastated Sur district

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Residents seeking to return to their normal daily lives in southeastern Diyarbak?r province's "devastated" Sur district, which has been the scene of weeks-long military operations against militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), will have to wait five or six years, Turkey's main opposition party has said.

"The curfews in the region have approached their 80th day. In a way which didn't even happen during the military coup d'état eras, decisions for curfews without timeframes, without interruption and which are beyond tolerance are being implemented unlawfully. Having moved away from democracy, human rights, fundamental rights and freedoms and the constitutional framework, the ruling party is responsible for the deaths of soldiers, police officers and innocent civilian people," Levent Gök, a deputy parliamentary group chair of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told reporters on Feb. 12, referring to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Gök was speaking upon visits to Diyarbak?r and southeastern Mardin province. Jointly carried out by the military and police, operations were first launched in Sur and the Cizre and Silopi districts of southeastern ??rnak province in mid-December 2015, as the fight against the PKK turned urban. Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Feb. 11 that security forces had completed their operations against militants in Cizre after weeks of fighting. More than 800 militants have been killed in Cizre and Sur since they were placed under a round-the-clock curfew in December, the army said. 

"In Sur, almost 80 percent of [the district's] buildings have been devastated. Around 50,000 of the population have migrated. Shops and schools are closed and commercial activity has stopped....

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