Bakur (2015)
Bakur is the Kurdish name for southeastern Turkey, a region home to roughly 22 million Kurds. In July 2015, the breakdown of a fragile two-and-a-half-year ceasefire between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) triggered one of the bloodiest chapters in a conflict that has raged since 1984, claiming over 40,000 lives.
The renewed fighting in 2015 brought intense military operations to Kurdish-majority cities, where entire neighborhoods were placed under curfew, razed, and emptied. Beyond the physical destruction, the violence deeply disrupted civilian life—displacing families, shutting down schools, and halting economic activity.
This series features a selection of photographs from that period, capturing the early days of renewed warfare between the Turkish military and PKK fighters.
Members of the Kurdish youth militia YPS (Defense Forces of Civilians) stand guard behind a barricade at the entrance of the autonomous Turgut Ozal neighborhood in Idil, Sirnak province.
Young Kurds hurl rocks during clashes with Turkish security forces in Cumhuriyet, a self-declared autonomous neighborhood of Yüksekova.
Young Kurds in Cizre during a curfew.
A mother mourns her son, a young Kurdish civilian shot and killed by a Turkish sniper during clashes in Yüksekova.
Funerals of two Kurdish civilians killed by Turkish forces in Yüksekova.
Ruins of Zergele village in the Qandil Mountains, a stronghold of the outlawed PKK in Iraq. The village was destroyed by a Turkish airstrike, killing eight civilians.
Relatives mourn during the funeral of a PKK guerrilla in Esendere, a border town in Hakkari province near Iran.
A Turkish soldier patroling the road between Uludere and Sirnak.
Funeral of a PKK guerrilla in Esendere, Hakkari province, killed by Turkish military forces in the Qandil Mountains.
Destroyed homes in Silvan following clashes between PKK guerrillas and Turkish security forces.
A boy on a street in Cizre during a military-imposed curfew.
Members of the Kurdish youth militia YPS (Defense Forces of Civilians) stand guard behind a barricade at the entrance of the autonomous Turgut Ozal neighborhood in Idil, Sirnak province.
A 17-year-old member of the YDGH (Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement) in Cizre.
Relatives mourn two young Kurdish civilians killed by Turkish security forces during clashes in Yüksekova.
Barricades block an entrance to Cumhuriyet, a self-declared autonomous neighborhood in Yüksekova.