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Several injured in fresh Kurdish demos in
Turkey
25.3.2008 |
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March 25, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Several people were injured Monday
as fresh violence erupted in two Turkey's Kurdish
cities following the deaths of two Kurdish
protestors at the weekend, security sources and
witnesses said.
Clashes broke out in Van, in eastern Turkey, when
thousands of protesters tried to march through the
streets to denounce the death of a 35-year-old man
from a bullet wound he sustained during a protest at
the weekend.
Police used batons on Monday to beat back the
demonstrators -- members of Turkey's main Kurdish
party, the Democratic Society Party DTP in Van on
the ground that their march was illegal.
Witnesses said the ensuing scuffles left several
protestors injured while several others were
detained. |
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). |
There were similar
scenes in Yuksekova town in the country's southeast,
where demonstrators protested a heavy police
clampdown on a similar gathering in the town over
the weekend which left a 20-year-old man dead.
Riot police used tear gas on the protestors who
pelted officers with stones. Some reporters were
injured in the clashes, witnesses said.
Dozens of people have been detained at the weekend
in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast where
celebrations to mark March 21 -- Newroz Day,www.ekurd.net
or the Kurdish new year
-- degenerated into protests in favour of the armed
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which
Ankara lists as a terrorist group.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the The PKK took up arms for self-rule in
Turkey's southeast. 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.
Newroz is a traditional platform for Turkey's Kurds
to demonstrate support for rebels and demand broader
rights. Celebrations have been relatively calm in
recent years, but in 1992 about 50 people died in
clashes in the southeast.
More recently, in 2002, two men were crushed to
death in a police crackdown on violent Newroz
demonstrations in the southern city of Mersin.
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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