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Violence Spreads in Turkey’s Kurdish Region

A child is reported in critical condition after Kurdish demonstrators clashed with security forces for a third day, Thursday, in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

Turkish police backed by armored personnel carriers used tear gas and truncheons to disperse a violent march Thursday by tens of thousands of Kurdish protesters in Diyarbakir. A seven-year-old boy was reported to be in critical condition after sustaining bullet wounds in his stomach. Witnesses said he was fired on by police. The reports could not be confirmed.

The urban skirmishes, described as the worst in the past decade, first erupted on Tuesday during funeral services for 14 rebels of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The rebels were killed by Turkish security forces in the neighboring province of Mus over the weekend.

Four of the rebels were from Diyarbakir, the most populous city in southeastern Turkey, a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism. Thousands of Kurds clashed with security forces during a funeral organized for the rebels on Wednesday. Three mourners, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in the clashes. Elsewhere across the city, teenagers chanting Kurdish nationalist slogans smashed hundreds of shop windows and torched businesses and government offices in rioting that lasted for several hours.

Most shops remained closed Thursday and most residents kept to their homes, fearing unrest during the funeral for the three victims of Wednesday's violence.

Eyewitnesses said the violence was triggered by teenage youths who hurled rocks at a police station on the way to the cemetery.

The chief of Turkish National police and other high ranking security officials gathered in Diyarbakir Thursday as the violence spread to the neighboring city of Batman.

Officials there say some 5,000 demonstrators, protesting Wednesday's deaths, torched and ransacked around 300 shops, banks and government offices in the city. At least 20 people were reported to have been wounded when police intervened to disperse that demonstration.

Violence has been steadily escalating in Diyarbakir and the surrounding region since June 2004. That is when the PKK ended a five year unilateral truce it had declared following the capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in February 1999. The PKK said it was taking up arms again because of what it termed the government's failure to broker a lasting peace. The rebel group began its armed campaign, initially for independence and later for autonomy, in 1984. Over 30,000 people have died in the fighting.

Western governments had long criticized the Turkish army for the brutal methods employed to suppress the rebellion in the Kurdish region. Turkey has adopted a more conciliatory approach toward the Kurds in recent years, including easing bans on the Kurdish language, as it seeks to gain entry of the European Union.

Analysts say the escalation in violence risks jeopardizing the reform process, as the Ankara government has begun taking tougher measures to counter the PKK. On Thursday, the interior ministry launched an investigation of Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir for expressing sympathy for the dead PKK rebels.

http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=11838

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The German magazine Der Spiegel reported at least 8 people, among them at least 3 children, were killed by the Turkish police and military and hundreds were injured.

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IHT, Reuters, AP published yesterday following article...

Turkish police break up widening Kurdish rioting

The police broke up demonstrations by thousands of Kurdish protesters in southeastern Turkey on Thursday as violence spread to a second city in the aftermath of the killing of 14 Kurdish guerrillas.

Diyarbakir has been hit in recent days by the region's worst street violence in more than a decade. Three people have died during riots, and Kurdish officials claim two of them were shot by the police. Five people were wounded, including some by gunfire, during new clashes in Diyarbakir on Thursday, the authorities said.

Hundreds of protesters hurled firebombs at two banks and shattered the windows of the local police headquarters, as well as a high school and some businesses, the Anatolia news agency reported. The police also fired into the air in an attempt to disperse the crowds, it said.

Extra police and paramilitary forces were drafted into the city Thursday and fearful residents kept their children indoors. Most shops remained closed.

Violent protests, meanwhile, spread to the nearby city of Batman, and security forces stopped a march by some 2,000 people after firebombs were thrown at businesses. Protesters also smashed the windows of banks and government offices.

News reports said at least 10 protesters had been hurt in the clashes. Black smoke from burning car tires mixed with white smoke from tear gas canisters fired by police.

Kurdish guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party have been fighting for autonomy in a war that has left 37,000 people dead in the region since 1984. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.

Political analysts said the riots are rooted in high unemployment, poverty and a belief among the Kurds of the region that Ankara is not seriously interested in improving their lot. Under pressure from the European Union, which it hopes to join, Turkey removed restrictions on Kurdish language and culture, but critics said that was insufficient.

The Turkish authorities have been trying to restore order in the Kurdish- dominated southeast without using excessive force so as to not endanger the country's bid to join the EU by tarnishing its human rights record. But they are also under intense pressure from nationalists, who want force used.

In a related development, a parliamentary commission on Thursday approved a draft law to establish better coordination among security forces.

There has been a resurgence of violence since June 2004, when the rebels declared an end to a cease-fire.

In Diyarbakir, residents feared an escalation of the violence, which began after the funerals of four of 14 Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops in the southeastern province of Mus.

"We're scared to go out," said a banker, who refused to give his name because he feared reprisals.

Mustafa Tanir, a locksmith, called for an end to the protests. "We can't open our shops," he said. "We want these incidents to end as soon as possible."

Mayor Osman Baydemir, from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, claimed that two protesters aged 19 and 23 had been shot by Turkish security forces. An 8-year-old boy also died this week, apparently hit by a car as he tried to escape the violence.

Baydemir met with protesters late Wednesday in an apparent bid to restore some calm. The private television station NTV said he had kissed a masked rioter on the cheek, then said, "I congratulate you because of your courage."