The Cizre curfew involved "wholesale destruction of large residential areas carried out by the military", which used crew-served weapons, including airstrikes.

[8] Around 20 January Turkish military opened fire without warning on a group of unarmed Kurdish civilians waving white flags, thereby killing two and wounding nine people.

[9] The video journalist Refik Tekin filming the incident was shot in the leg and later accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation.

[11][12] During the military operations in the weeks before the massacre on 7 February there were reports about people trapped in basements, some of them wounded, and that the government denied emergency ambulance access.

[18][19] In another recording it is reported that Turkish security forces burned about 20 people alive after pouring gasoline into a basement, and that they were playing music used by the ultra-nationalist organisation called Grey Wolves.

[20] As reported by IPPNW, according to the Human Rights Association 178 unarmed people were killed by the Turkish military and their bodies found in three basements.

[35][36] Russia: In March 2016 the Russian Foreign Ministry addressed the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office, asking for it to investigate.