Photo Journal Monday: Tommaso Protti

A flooded mosque in Halfeti on the Euphrates River. The area was partially submerged in 1999 by the Birecik Dam. The district of Halfeti is the birthplace of Abdullah Ocalan, founder and leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). © Tommaso Protti

Tommaso Protti explores the southeastern part of Turkey, home to nearly half world's Kurds.

Since 1984, when the Marxist-Leninist Kurdish political party the PKK launched the armed struggle against the Turkish government, more than 40,000 people have died. Violence and oppression have hit at the core of the region’s social fabric, impacting education and business, stalling growth and progress.

Protti’s work investigates the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish State, identifying how social, political and economic factors have contributed to alienating the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

“BAKUR” is the Kurdish name for the southeastern part of Turkey, home to nearly half world's Kurds.

I have started the project in 2011 documenting GAP, a Turkish multi-sector regional development project based on construction of dams and hydroelectric power stations along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. I have gained unique access to isolated rural communities and individuals, observing the disparities, hurdles and broken promises they have experienced living in the shadow of the GAP project since 1977 (which is yet to be completed). Then, I have explored the aftermaths of the 90s war and the continuing presence of the village guard system, a controversial paramilitary force of Kurdish villagers armed and paid by the Turkish government to fight the PKK. I have followed the peace process between the PKK and Turkish State since March 2013, when the beginning of ceasefire was announced in Diyarbakir in front of a crowd of two million Kurdish people. 

I went back to the southeast in 2015 in order to witness the rise of the armed Kurdish youth movement and the development of the current unrest that has shattered the two-year ceasefire that raised hopes to end the three decades of fighting.

Since July 2015, the region has been plunged into some of its worst violence in years with several towns and cities in the southeast that have broken away from Turkey and groups of young Kurds - not affiliated to the traditional PKK chain-command and instead belonging to the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) - who have taken up arms, dug trenches and erected barricades to seal off neighborhoods and prevent the advances of the Turkish security forces to assert control of their territory. In response, Turkish government forces have declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and implemented repressive measures against Kurds. A number of towns in the southeast have become battlefields and massive security operations are under way against the Kurdish militias, during which dozens of civilians have died. 

Sheets obscure an entrance to Tekel; an autonomous neighborhood in Silvan under the control of the armed Kurdish youth movement. October 27, 2015 Silvan, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

A young Kurd at the funeral of a PKK guerrilla in the grave yard of Esendere, a town in the Hakkari province at the border with Iran. Since July 2015, the region has seen a surge in violence with daily clashes between the Turkish army and the militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The escalation has shattered a two-year ceasefire that had raised hopes of an end to three decades of fighting, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. November 4, 2015 Esendere, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

Young Kurds throw rocks during a clash against Turkish security forces in Cumhuriyet, a self-declared autonomous neighborhood in Yuksekova. November 3, 2015 Yuksekova, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

Kurdish people waiting for a bus in Sanliurfa. The Sanliurfa province in the southeast has a strategic and symbolic importance for the Kurdish movement since it borders the Kobani administration and is also the birthplace of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. © Tommaso Protti

PKK guerrilla fighters on the Qandil mountains. November 13, 2015 Qandil, Iraq. © Tommaso Protti

Nur, an autonomous neighborhood in Cizre. Since July 2015 Turkish security forces have repeatedly put Cizre under weeks-long curfews, under which hundreds have died. October 29, 2015 Cizre, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

Young Kurds in Cizre during a curfew. Since July 2015, several neighborhoods in Cizre declared autonomy with groups of young Kurds taking up arms and raising barricades. Since then Turkish security forces have repeatedly put Cizre under weeks-long curfews, under which hundread of civilians have died. October 29, 2015 Cizre, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

A seventeen year old YDGH (Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement) in Cizre. Since July 2015, several towns and cities in the southeast have broken away from Turkey, with groups of young Kurds taking up arms, digging trenches and erecting barricades to seal off neighborhoods. October 29, 2015 Cizre, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

Kurdish youth militia YPS (Defense Forces of Civilians) hold their position behind a barricade and surveil an entrance to the Turgut Ozal autonomous neighborhood of Idil, a town in the Sirnak province. Several neighborhoods in Idil have declared autonomy and built self-rules, with groups of young Kurds who have taken up arms and raise barricades to prevent the advances of the Turkish forces. October 30, 2015 Idil, Turkey. © Tommaso Protti

To find out more about Tommaso Protti’s work please click here.