|
Kurds clash with Turkish police at Newroz
festival
21.3.2006
|
|
|
|
Diyarbakir,
Kurdistan-Turkey 21 March 2006, - Kurdish
demonstrators hurled rocks at Turkish police on
Tuesday as more than 100,000 Kurds gathered in the
city of Diyarbakir for a Kurdish New Year festival 'Newroz".
At least eight people were injured, hospital
officials said.
Turkish warplanes flew over the demonstrators in
Diyarbakir, the largest city in overwhelmingly
Kurdish southeastern Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey). Many
of the demonstrators shouted support for
autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
Several police officers were among the eight injured
during the clashes, hospital officials said.
Television footage showed police trying to defend
themselves with shields against a shower of rocks.
Demonstrators shouted slogans in praise of
imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and
unfurled giant pictures of Ocalan and banners of his
guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK,
and Kurdistan Flags, television footage showed.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the
US and the European Union.
The spring festival of Newroz has been the scene of
clashes in the past, especially in the early 1990s,
at the height of a conflict between the Turkish army
and Kurdish rebels.
The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned on
Tuesday against provocations during Newroz
celebrations and urged all to hold festivities in
peace.
The family of an 18-year-old Kurdish youth said the
teen was shot and wounded by police during an
illegal demonstration in Istanbul on Monday evening,
private NTV television reported. There was no
immediate comment from police.
The Festival celebrated on the first day of spring
and Kurds celebrate the New Kurdish year 2706
(2006).
The festival is mainly marked by Kurds in Turkey and
has traditionally been used by Kurds to express
their support for Kurdish fighters who launched a
war for autonomy in 1984. The fighting has claimed
about 37,000 lives.
Newroz, which means "new day" in Kurdish, has long
served as a rallying cry for Kurdish nationalism and
public celebrations that were illegal in Turkey
until 1999, the year Ocalan was captured. He was
later sentenced to life imprisonment.
Despite increased clashes between security forces
and the rebels in recent months, there were no
reports of major violence marring the festivities in
Diyarbakir, the largest city of Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast (Turkey-Kurdistan).
Revellers danced around bonfires, waved Kurdish
flags and pictures of Ocalan, leader of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and applauded calls
for more cultural and linguistic rights for Turkey's
12 million Kurds.
They cheered a speaker who said a petition urging
Ocalan's release from jail had so far collected two
million signatures.
"The repression of our language and culture must
end, our language must be used in schools," Ahmet
Turk, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP), told the crowd.
"Everything is possible within the EU process," he
said.
Under pressure from the European Union, which Turkey
hopes to join, Ankara has gradually eased
restrictions on Kurdish language teaching and
broadcasting, though many Kurds want the government
to do much more.
Kurdish is an Indo-European language unrelated to
Turkish, though it contains many Turkish words.
KURDS WANT MORE
"There is some movement, but it does not mean we
have our freedom now," said Ali Ihsan Okcu, a
40-year-old municipality worker clutching a picture
of Ocalan.
"Ocalan is our leader, the leader of the Kurdish
people. There can be no solution of the Kurdish
problem without him," he said, expressing a view
widely held among Turkey's Kurds.
But most Turks regard Ocalan as a terrorist
responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000
people since the PKK launched its armed struggle for
an ethnic Kurdish homeland in 1984.
The PKK is also classed as a terrorist organisation
by the European Union and the United States.
Violence largely subsided after his capture but has
ticked up again since the PKK called off a
unilateral ceasefire in 2004, though at a much lower
intensity than before.
"The PKK never hurt us. If it was a terrorist
organisation, you would not see all these people
here celebrating and cheering for them and for
Ocalan," said Ramazan Ekin, 28, who works at a local
cafe.
Police kept a low profile but two Turkish warplanes
roared overhead, a reminder that Diyarbakir remains
a major garrison town and that Turkey's powerful
armed forces continue to keep a watchful eye on
separatist-minded Kurds.
Newroz, or Nevruz in Turkish, is an ancient rite
that is also celebrated across Central Asia and
Iran.
AP - Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 