The General Staff last week requested a reinstatement of road searches, to which the Interior Ministry agreed. The practice has already been restarted, according to reports from the region, although a notice from the ministry has not yet been sent to the local governor’s offices.
The searches of vehicles and ID checks of passengers were lifted under the government’s democratic initiative, which seeks to extend more cultural rights to the country’s Kurds. They were seen as a major burden to the area’s people, making it difficult to travel from one district to another in the Southeast. Sometimes, a vehicle might have to pass several checkpoints in order to get to its destination.
According to a report from the Milliyet newspaper published over the weekend, in addition to these checkpoints, the practice of banning villagers from the region’s plateaus during the summer, known as the “plateau ban,” has also returned. This ban makes life difficult for area residents as it effectively prohibits them from grazing their flocks, an important source of income in the region.
