The Human Rights Foundation (IHD) and the Foundation for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed (Mazlumder) want to find an end as soon as possible to the environment of violence in the southeast and Kurdish regions, and stop the intensifying clashes of the recent period.

Mazlumder General Director Cevat Özkaya said, "Our worry is that large numbers of civilian and military lives are continuing to be lost because clashes have started again since recently."

In a written statement, Özkaya raised the topic of the five soldiers who were killed in the course of a large military operation conducted recently in Tunceli, and said: "In an environment in which every soldier's corpse reinforces feelings of anger and hatred, the situation risks creating the grounds for a conflict between societies.

"If the situation reaches this point, all sectors of society will pay a very heavy price."

Arguing that the idea that security strength alone can solve the problem makes it impossible to exercise the freedoms of society, he said "We invite the development of a more determined initiative of political solutions for an end to clashes and violence as a whole."

The IHD issued a statement saying that an insistence on weapons and violence would rapidly drag the country into chaos, and declaring that human rights, peace, and democracy activists' calls for an end to all armed operations will remain unceasing.

Again mentioning that yesterday five young people lost their lives in clashes in Tunceli, and that thousands of soldiers were involved in military operations in the region, the IHD said: "We condemn this barren, vicious cycle in which violence gives birth to violence."

The statement declared that "personal, organizational, and state-based violence must depart from Turkey's agenda at once," and continued by saying:

"We repeat once again that we are opposed to all forms of violence, no matter who it comes from.

Violence must be renounced as a means of governance and problem-solving in Turkey, and the government must especially not resort to violence as a mediator in the search for rights." (EA/YE)