UN calls on Turkey to investigate killings, abuses

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN human rights office is calling on Turkey's government to investigate alleged killings and other abuses in the country's southeast in a new report decrying violations including hundreds of alleged unlawful killings and the obliteration of nearly 1,800 buildings during security force operations over 18 months, The Associated Press reports.

The 25-page report draws on confidential and public accounts, satellite imagery and other sources because UN investigators have failed to win access to the largely ethnic Kurdish areas despite a year of attempts to do so.

The report released Friday focuses on alleged violations between July 2015 and December 2016, when at least 335,000 people were reportedly displaced during the security sweep.

The rights office said Turkey's government had indicated the Kurdistan Workers Party, which Ankara considers a terrorist group, had attacked security forces, killing and wounding.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein also noted the "complex challenges" that Turkey has faced since a failed coup in July.

The report cites allegations of cases including torture, enforced disappearances, incitement to hatred, and violence against women.