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Turkish PM Erdogan visits southeast in bid
to quell unrest
21.11.2005
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan moved to calm unrest in a surprise
visit to Turkey's southeast on Monday, pledging
support for a probe of alleged security force links
to a bombing which fuelled violent clashes.
Tensions have escalated in Hakkari province
bordering Iraq and Iran since a Nov. 9 bombing
blamed by many on members of the security forces.
Three members of the gendarmerie, responsible for
rural security, were detained in connection with the
deadly blast in Semdinli.
Six people have since been killed in related
protests, sparking renewed concern about the
troubled, mainly Kurdish southeast.
The government has demanded a parliamentary inquiry
into the bombing and Erdogan flew to the eastern
city of Van on Sunday night, travelling to Semdinli
town by helicopter on Monday.
"While the legal process is continuing we will
monitor it and do whatever is necessary on the
administrative front," Erdogan told a crowd of
hundreds gathered in a Semdinli street, in an
address appealing for national unity.
"Whatever ethnic, religious or regional group we are
part of we must live together hand-in-hand and
shoulder-to-shoulder," he said, flanked by heavily
armed guards.
The European Union, which Ankara aspires to join,
has urged Turkey to do more to develop the economy
of the southeast but has also put the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on its terrorism
blacklist.
There has been a rising tide of violence in the
mainly Kurdish southeast since the PKK called off a
six-year unilateral ceasefire last year and resumed
its attacks on security and civilian targets.
One man was killed in the bomb attack on a bookstore
in Semdinli, a small border town nestled below
mountains. Another was shot dead in subsequent
clashes with police.
In the nearby town of Yuksekova, three people were
killed in a demonstration at the bombing last
Tuesday and another was killed in a similar protest
a day later in Hakkari.
Highlighting the tensions, around 40,000 people
attended the funerals of those killed in Yuksekova
and tensions there were further fuelled as Turkish
warplanes flew overhead.
Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than
30,000 people since it launched its armed struggle
for an ethnic homeland in the region in 1984.
One man was killed on Sunday night in clashes
between police and protesters in the southern city
of Mersin on Sunday at a demonstration against the
violence in Hakkari.
Also overnight two bombs exploded in front of police
headquarters in the town of Silopi near the Iraqi
border, but did not cause any casualties.
Reuters
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