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Turkey-Kurdistan: Governor of eastern
province removed after riots
24.11.2005
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ANKARA, Nov 23 (AFP)
- 17h24 - The government removed from office
Wednesday the governor of the mainly Kurdish
province of Hakkari after deadly riots there sparked
calls for his resignation, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
Governor Erdogan Gurbuz was shifted to the northern
province of Tokat, whose governor Ayhan Nasuhbeyoglu
was named to Hakkari, a restive province bordering
Iran and Iraq.
During a visit to Hakkari on Monday, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was greeted by Kurdish
protestors calling on him to sack the governor, who
came under fire for mishandling the unrest and
accusing Kurdish politicians of directing the riots.
Hakkari was shaken by the bombing, widely believed
to have been engineered by the security forces, of a
bookstore owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla. |
Former governor of the mainly Kurdish province of Hakkari |
The November 9 attack in the town of Semdinli
sparked violent protests and riots that claimed five
lives across the province and in other parts of
Turkey.
An angry crowd almost lynched the three suspected
bombers after the attack.
Two of them turned out to be officers from the
gendarmerie -- military troops that police rural
areas -- and the third, who reportedly threw the
bomb, was identified as a former Kurdish guerrilla
turned informer for the security forces.
The incident rattled the government at a time when
it is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment
to democracy and the rule of law in its bid to join
the European Union.
AFP
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