The GUE/NGL Group condemns in the strongest possible terms the latest in a series of deadly attacks on the citizens of the Kurdish town of Cizre in South East Turkey, where some 60 people, many of them injured and trapped in two buildings, are reported to have been killed in the past few days.

GUE/NGL Vice-President Neoklis Sylikiotis comments: “Last week the GUE/NGL called on the Turkish authorities to provide emergency help to all those in need of medical care in Cizre and other towns and villages in the region. Now we hear that these people have been massacred.”

“We call on both the European Union and the United Nations to urgently intervene in this area of Turkey and to send teams to investigate these massacres and the other human rights abuses being carried out there. Turkey cannot be let off the hook for its crimes in this area of the country under the pretext that it is providing shelter to refugees elsewhere within its borders.”

MEP Sylikiotis concludes: “The group calls for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the military and police violence against civilians. The EU must urgently act to mediate in the face of these massacres and the severe human rights violations.”

GUE/NGL Press Contact:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20