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Turkish police clamp down on Kurdish
protests
22.3.2008 |
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March 22, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Dozens of people were injured and
scores detained as police used truncheons and tear
gas to break up violent Kurdish protests in several
Turkish cities Saturday, media reports said.
The unrest erupted when celebrations marking March
21, Newroz day, or the Kurdish new year, degenerated
into demonstrations in favour of the armed Turkey's
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which
Ankara lists as a terrorist group.
Newroz festivities held on Friday were largely
peaceful, but demonstrators took to the streets
again on Saturday, chanting slogans in favour of the
PKK and its jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Tensions were high in the eastern Kurdish city of
Van, where riot police used tear gas and water
cannons to disperse a crowd of some 1,500 people,
who set bonfires and barricades in the streets and
broke the windows of shops and government buildings,
reports said.
Footage on the NTV news channel showed officers
hitting several protestors with batons and armoured
vehicles spraying pressurised water on the crowd.
Young men, hiding their faces behind cloths wrapped
around their heads, were seen hurling stones at the
police, who took cover behind plastic shields.
About 60 people, among them policemen, were injured
and scores of protestors detained, Anatolia news
agency reported.
Two parliament members from the Kurdish Democratic
Society Party DTP were among the crowd,www.ekurd.net
which took to the
streets in defiance of a decision by Van authorities
to allow Newroz festivities only on Friday.
Several Kurds were taken into custody in similar
unrest in Hakkari, near the border with Iraqi
Kurdistan, Anatolia said.
Another 16 people were detained late Friday in
Viransehir, also in the southeast, after a Newroz
celebration was followed by a pro-PKK march that saw
protestors hurling Molotov cocktails at the police,
Anatolia said, adding that nine officers were
injured. |
Turkish riot police take cover behind an armoured
personnel carrier to protect themselves from petrol
bombs and stones hurled by Kurdish protesters during
clashes after the Newroz day celebrations in the
southeastern Turkish town of Viransehir March 21,
2008. Protesters clashed with security forces after
they celebrated Newroz in Viransehir on Friday.
Newroz, which means 'new day' in Kurdish, marks the
arrival of spring and is also celebrated in
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Tajikistan.
Turkish Kurds, some of them holding flags of the
outlawed PKK, and a poster of its jailed leader,
Ocalan, chant slogans during the Newroz celebrations
in the southeastern Kurdish city of Diyarbakir,
March 21, 2008 |
There was unrest also in
cities in western Turkey, which are home to sizeable
Kurdish immigrant communities from the southeast.
In Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast, 10 people
were detained after demonstrators burnt tyres in the
streets, hurled stones at the police and broke shop
windows, the agency said.
Another 18 people were apprehended in the Aegean
city of Izmir in a two-day security sweep that
resulted in the seizure of petrol bombs the suspects
allegedly planned to use in Newroz protests, it
said.
Newroz is a traditional platform for Turkey's Kurds
to demonstrate support for the PKK and demand
broader rights. About 50 people were killed during
Newroz clashes in 1992.
Newroz, which is Nevruz in Turkish, is celebrated in
Iran, Kurdistan region in Iraq and central Asia as
the beginning of spring, but in Turkey has been
associated with Turkey's large Kurdish population in
(Turkey-Kurdistan) the southeastern part of the
country. Writing the 'Newroz' in Kurdish is prohibited in Turkey because
the Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized in
Turkey,www.ekurd.net
and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q which
do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led to
judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003. Kurdish Newroz must be written as 'Nevruz'
with Turkish alphabet.
The PKK toop up arms for self-rule in the
Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a
conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
AFP | Reuters | Agencies
** Kurds are not recognized as an official minority
in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in Big
Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK for a Kurdish homeland in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led
to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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