![]() Scores injured in Kurdish riots in Turkey
By Mahmut Bozarslan
The violence broke out on Tuesday following the funerals of four Kurdish rebels, who were among 14 militants killed over the weekend in a military operation against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), when angry mourners shouting "vengeance" attacked the security forces. On Wednesday, the army moved tanks to a garrison in the outskirts of Diyarbakir as the authorities called in reinforcements from neighbouring regions, including paramilitary police and special commando forces. Riot police, taking cover behind plastic shields, fired tear gas at the protesters and sprayed them with pressurised water from armoured vehicles, also firing warning shots in the air. About 600 paramilitary commandos were deployed outside the governor's office after protesters stoned the building.
The crowd burned down a bank and torched several vehicles on Tuesday. Ala identified one of the dead as a passer-by who was killed in a traffic accident while running away from the trouble, and Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir said two other victims died in hospital from firearms wounds. Half of the injured were policemen, Ala said, adding that one person was in serious condition. The main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), urged an end to the violence, while blaming the unrest on Ankara's failure to meet Kurdish demands for greater freedoms. "The developments have come to a point that will seriously harm both democracy and our peoples' will to live together," Baydemir, a DTP member, said. "What has happened is the result of the failure to find a permanent and peaceful settlement to the Kurdish question." Eager to boost its EU bid, Ankara has made a series of gestures to the Kurds, including the inauguration of Kurdish-language broadcasts and private courses teaching their tongue, but activists demand broader rights. "No reason can justify such violence. You cannot resolve a problem by creating bigger problems," Ala said, calling on residents for restraint. In Ankara, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu charged that the unrest was instigated by the PKK, which has stepped up violence in the southeast since calling off a five-year ceasefire in June 2004. The foreign ministry said it was investigating whether the Denmark-based pro-PKK Roj TV, which Turkey wants banned, had a role in fanning the violence. The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed 37 000 lives since the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the EU and the United States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the south-east in 1984.
Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-03-29 23:11:54
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains. |