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| Europe |
| Turkey: Police clash with Kurds in southeast |
| 2009-08-06 |
| [ADN Kronos] Turkish police are reported to have fired water cannon and tear gas to foil a protest by Kurds in support of jailed Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, witnesses said Wednesday. Media reports said police had detained 11 people after protesters threw Molotov cocktails and stones in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir late Tuesday, security sources said. One police officer was injured in the conflict. The demonstrators chanted pro-Ocalan slogans and had been on a march in support of a "road map" to solve the Kurdish problem which Ocalan is to announce in mid-August. The clashes took place ahead of a meeting between Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party Ahmet Turk, in a bid to solve the Kurdish issue. Turkey holds Ocalan responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since 1984 when his militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. The conflict has also reportedly worsened the poverty in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. The government has not made clear what measures it will propose to end the conflict with the PKK other than cultural reforms such as Kurdish-language broadcasting, intended to address complaints of discrimination among the 12 million Kurds in Turkey. Ankara has ruled out negotiation or amnesty for the PKK, which Turkey, like the United States and the European Union, regards as a terrorist organisation. Ocalan was charged with treason and sentenced to hang by a Turkish court in 1999. The sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty under pressure from the EU, which Ankara wants to join. |
| Posted by:Fred |