Turkey continues reconstruction work in the Nusaybin district of southeastern Mardin province, which was heavily damaged by the terrorist activities of the PKK terrorist organization in 2015 and 2016.
In 2015, after ending the ceasefire with the Turkish state, the PKK shifted its focus from the mountains to city centers and started to dig ditches as a new tactic, which destroyed the cities and caused thousands of people to flee the region. During clashes with Turkish security forces, PKK terrorists damaged infrastructure in southeastern towns and people's homes, which they used as hiding places. According to locals, the PKK would threaten people in order to open up their homes so they could dig tunnels between houses to escape from security forces.
Today, thanks to counterterrorism operations, the region has security once again, and work launched to repair the destruction continues.
Of 4,000,657 new houses built for local people whose houses were destroyed by terrorist attacks, 85 percent are completed. In addition to houses, there are also offices, schools, mosques, social facilities, parks and children playgrounds in the projects to renovate the town. New houses are to be delivered to the terror victims in August. According to news reports, virtually half of the people in four conflict-ridden districts, Cizre and Silopi in Şırnak, Sur in Diyarbakır and Nusaybin in Mardin, with a total population of 439,000, have been badly affected by the clashes. Around 93,000 people from the four districts have left the region, about 22 percent of the total population.
According to the Interior Ministry, 20,000 people out of 116,000 in Nusaybin have left. In November 2015, it was reported that houses belonging to families who are known to oppose the PKK were marked by the terrorist organization to single them out and pressure them to leave. Reportedly, the PKK benefited from abandoned houses, settled in them and used them in clashes.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. During its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives.
