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Turkish PM calls crisis meeting over
violence in Kurdish region
17.11.2005
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, Nov 16 (AFP) - 20h59 - Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his
justice and interior ministers to a crisis meeting
in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss the violence
flaring in the country's predominantly Kurdish
southeast.
The talks came as one protestor was reportedly
killed and 15 injured in fresh clashes between
several hundred Kurdish demonstrators and security
forces in Hakkari city, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
Riot police used water cannons and tear gas and
fired shots into the air to disperse the
demonstrators, a local security official said.
The death brings to five the number of people killed
in almost daily riots since the November 9 bombing
of a bookstore in Semdinli, owned by a former
Kurdish guerrilla, provoking a demonstartion in
which one person died. .
On Tuesday, three people were killed and 16 others
injured, including seven policemen, during
demonstrations in Yuksekova, near Semdinli and also
in Hakkari province.
Autopsies revealed that two of the dead had been
shot and the third crushed, a senior local judicial
official said Wednesday.
The protests were sparked by last week's bomb attack
in Semdinli -- widely blamed on the security forces
-- and subsequent repression there.
Violence flared when some demonstrators threw stones
at police, who retaliated with tear gas and fired
shots into the air
Shops in Yuksekova remained closed on Wednesday and
armoured security vehicles were deployed in front of
official buildings, according to the NTV news
channel.
On Tuesday, President Erdogan appealed for calm in
the region, saying: "I invite our brothers in both
Semdinli and Yuksekova to be calm and prudent.
He added that the government would fully investigate
the Semdinli bombing, "no matter where it leads, and
whoever has to pay the price will pay it."
The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives
since 1984 when the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party,
blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey,
the European Union and the United States, took up
arms for Kurdish self-rule.
AFP
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