Six years ago, on 19 December 2015, Taybet Inan was shot dead in the street during the curfews in Silopi, in the Şırnak (Şirnex) province of Turkey.
Her dead body was left in the street for seven days as the Turkish army prevented anyone from reaching her. Her relatives were reportedly shot too, trying to retreive the body of the 57-year-old Kurdish woman.
The curfew was announced by the Governor’s office on 14 December 2015. Sixty eight people, aged between 11 and 75, lost their lives during the 38-day ban in which more than 500 homes were destroyed.
From the time Inan was shot, she struggled for about 6 hours in the same place until she finally died in the street. Inan’s relative, Yusuf Inan, was shot in the courtyard of his house while trying to come to her assistance. He was prevented from doing so and Inan bled to death. Taybet’s husband, Halit Inan, was also injured while trying to retrieve her body.
Seven days later, Taybet Inan’s body was picked up by her two sons and buried. While the family mourned mother Taybet’s death, her daughter Heznê Inan was also killed by the Turkish army in a basement during the curfews in Cizre. Heznê Inan’s body was given to the family five months later.
Taybet Inan’s daughter, Halime İnan, spoke to MA on the anniversary of her mother’s death. She recalled her mother’s last words before she died, describing what happened on the day of the killing: “My mother said, ‘Everyone’s gone, so if I die, don’t grieve.’ I wanted to go to my mother’s house, but they stopped me. I finally went there by crawling [on the ground]. I saw my mother in the street: she was not moving, like she was sleeping. It’s like she wasn’t dead.”
Halime İnan still lives in Silopi, and every day she passes through the road where her mother was killed.
“All that we have experienced is like a dark nightmare,” she says. “I will persist with my mother’s case for the rest of my life. One day, they will be held responsible. For me, my mother was still alive. My mother had fallen, but it was like she was asleep. For me, my mother is still alive. My mother is not dead.”
