The Lullaby in the Freezer: The Story of Kurdish 10-Year-Old Cemîle Çağırga and the Siege of Cizre by Turkish government (2015)
In September 2015, during a brutal 24-hour military curfew in the Kurdish city of Cizre, a 10-year-old girl named Cemîle Çağırga was playing in her doorway when she was shot by a Turkish sniper. She died in her mother’s arms.
Because of the strict "shoot-to-kill" curfew imposed by the Turkish government, no ambulance could reach their home, and no one was allowed to leave for a hospital or a cemetery.
The unimaginable reality:
As the summer heat began to affect her body, her mother, Emine, had no way to bury her daughter. To prevent her child's body from decomposing, she was forced to place Cemîle in the family’s deep freezer. For three days, Cemîle lay among the frozen food. Her mother later recounted how she spent those nights holding her daughter’s frozen hand so she wouldn’t feel "lonely or cold."
The Political Brutality:
Cemîle’s death was not an isolated incident. It occurred during a period of intense state violence against Kurdish civilians in Southeast Turkey. The Turkish government justified these sieges as "anti-terror" operations, but the reality for those on the ground was a systematic campaign of collective punishment.
• Indefinite Curfews: Entire cities were cut off from water, electricity, and medical supplies for weeks.
• Targeting Civilians: Human rights organizations (Amnesty, HRW, UN) documented dozens of civilian deaths, including children and the elderly, often killed by snipers while simply trying to find food or water.
• Erasure: After the sieges, entire neighborhoods were razed to the ground to hide the evidence of the brutality, and those who spoke out—journalists and politicians—were arrested.
The Song:
Today, the ancient Kurdish folk song "Lorîkê Cemîle" (Lullaby for Jamila) has been reclaimed as a tribute to her. What was once a traditional melody is now a haunting anthem for a child who was denied even the dignity of a timely burial.
Kurdish history is often written in blood and preserved in songs. Cemîle’s story remains a stark reminder of the cost of the Turkish state’s century-long policy of suppression against its Kurdish population.
Rest in peace, Cemîle. 🕊️