Posted on Thu, Mar. 30, 2006


Turkish police break up Kurdish protest


Associated Press

Violent protests by thousands of Kurdish demonstrators left at least 20 hurt Thursday as protesters hurled firebombs and police opened fire to disperse the crowds, authorities and local media said.

Hundreds of protesters in the city of Diyarbakir threw firebombs at two banks and shattered the windows of the local police headquarters, as well as a high school and some businesses, the Anatolia news agency said. Police fired into the air to scatter the crowds, it said.

Eight people were injured, including some by gunfire, authorities said. One of the injured was reported to be in serious condition.

Kurdish politicians said a boy was shot in the chest by police. Authorities in Ankara did not provide details.

Protests and violence spread to the nearby city of Batman, where security forces stopped a march by some 2,000 people after firebombs were thrown at businesses. Protesters also smashed the windows of banks and government offices.

Twelve protesters were injured in Batman and police detained 15 rioters, authorities said. Black smoke from burning car tires mixed with white smoke from tear gas canisters fired by police.

Kurdish guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have been fighting for autonomy in a war that has left 37,000 people dead in the region since 1984. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.

Diyarbakir has been hit in recent days by the region's worst street violence in more than a decade, following the killing of 14 Kurdish guerrillas. Three people have died during riots; Kurdish officials claim two of them were shot by police.

An 8-year-old boy also died in Diyarbakir this week, apparently hit by a car as he tried to escape the violence.

Police helicopters hovered above the protesters in Diyarbakir Thursday and extra police and paramilitary forces arrived in the city. Fearful residents kept their children indoors and most shops remained closed.

Turkish authorities have been trying to restore order in the Kurdish-dominated southeast without using excessive force, to not endanger the country's bid to join the European Union by further tarnishing its human rights record. But they are also under intense pressure from nationalists, who want force used against the Kurds.

Turkey, where minority status is granted on the basis of religion rather than ethnicity, does not recognize its sizable Kurdish population as a minority.

Senior military, police and civilian authorities said in a statement after an anti-terrorism meeting Thursday that they had decided to take "all necessary measures within the limits of laws and democracy to struggle with separatism and terrorism, and implement them with absolute determination."

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged citizens "not to pay attention to the provocations and propaganda of the terrorist organizations."

"Nobody should dare to harm our internal peace," Erdogan said. "Turkey will continue to improve its democracy, human rights and freedoms, and cannot be subjugated by these harmful attempts."

There has been a resurgence of violence since June 2004, when the rebels declared an end to a cease-fire, accusing Turkey of not responding in kind and refusing rebel calls for dialogue.

"If someone is expecting us to bargain, they are waiting in vain," Erdogan told reporters. "We can't tolerate any illegal action."

The EU has demanded that Turkey grant Kurds greater rights and stabilize the country's southeast. The government has granted limited rights to broadcast in the Kurdish language, and teach the language, but they have been largely deemed unsatisfactory by the Kurds.





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