Turkey Traps: 'Ankara Wages Psychological Warfare Against Kurds'

The recent Atrocities in Cizre indicate that Ankara is using psychological warfare tactics against Kurds in southeastern Turkey, according to Kurdish activist Nurcan Baysal.

In an interview with RT, Kurdish activist Nurcan Baysal said that the atrocities in Cizre point to Ankara waging a psychological war against Kurds in southeastern Turkey.

The interview came amid reports that the Turkish military had burned over 100 people alive who had been trapped in the basements of different buildings located in the mainly Kurdish town of Cizre in Turkey's southeast.

Baysal suggested that trapping people in basements and burning them alive is a strategy that Turkish troops will make more use of when fighting Kurds in the country's southwestern provinces.

Turkey killed 150 Kurds trapped in 3 basements in Cizre. They removed the war crime evidence before letting journos. pic.twitter.com/UHlKaamUmr

— Gilgo (@agirecudi) 19 февраля 2016

"I think that Turkish troops will not only use this strategy in Cizre, but also in the towns of Suruc and Idil. All this looks like Turkey is waging psychological warfare against Kurds, given that everything is happening right before our eyes," she said.

It look like the authorities are sending other Kurds the message that the same thing will happen to them and that they will all die after being trapped in a basement without food and water, according to Baysal.

Footage shows basement where 150 reportedly burned alive in Cizre https://t.co/nA4tzhpuKghttps://t.co/WdcrQwuFfB

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) 19 февраля 2016

Earlier, Feleknas Uca, a member of the Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, told Sputnik that around 120 people had been burned alive by Turkish military forces in Cizre district in the Sirnak province.

#Kurdistan: military operations might be over but what's left in #Cizre is destruction and nationalistic graffiti pic.twitter.com/z7l2DcX6Sr

— Thomas van Linge (@arabthomness) 18 февраля 2016

According to him, some corpses were found without heads, and others were burned completely, so that an autopsy was not possible. He added that all the victims in the Sirnak province that borders Syria and Iraq were Kurds.

Relations between Ankara and Kurds both inside the country and in Syria have been progressively worsening. Turkey links Syrian Kurds to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and labels both terrorist organizations.

Tensions escalated in July 2015, after 33 Kurdish activists were killed in a suicide blast in Suruc and two Turkish policemen were later killed by PKK, which led to Ankara's military campaign against the group. Violence escalated further in December, when Turkish authorities declared a curfew in a number of southeastern regions.

The authorities were also quick to blame Kurdish organizations for Wednesday's blast in the Turkish capital Ankara that killed 28 and left 61 people wounded.