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2 Kurdish protestors die after Kurdish
demos in Turkey
23.3.2008
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March 23, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- A second demonstrator died Sunday
in southeastern Turkey as clashes between Kurdish
protestors and the police continued for a third day,
hospital sources said. The demonstrators died Sunday
from injuries sustained in clashes between Kurdish
protestors and the Turkish police in the eastern
Turkey's Kurdish city of Van, government and health
officials said.
The 35-year-old Zeki Erinc had been hospitalised
Saturday with a bullet wound, doctors said.
An official from the Van governor's office confirmed
the death, but was unable to provide details on the
nature of his injuries.
Around 50 people, among them policemen, were wounded
and some 130 others were detained in Saturday's
clashes in Van, according to the police.
The unrest erupted when a gathering meant to mark
Newroz -- or the Kurdish New Year -- degenerated
into demonstrations in support of the armed
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as
a "terrorist" group by Ankara.
Riot police fired warning shots in the air and used
tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd of
some 1,500 people, who chanted pro-PKK slogans,www.ekurd.net
set bonfires and
barricades and hurled stones at the police.
Two local officials from the Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP), which organised the gathering,
were among those detained on charges of provoking
the unrest.
The police blamed the unrest on the DTP, which
defied a decision by authorities in the city to
allow Newroz gatherings only on Friday.
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.
The PKK took 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. |
Turkish riot police charge with batons to disperse
pro-Kurdish DTP supporters during a demonstration in
the eastern Turkey's Kurdish city of Van March 22,
2008, while celebrating Kurdish New Year Newroz by
shouting slogans supporting the banned separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
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 |
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 | 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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