MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-FUNERAL/CLASHES Clashes break out after funeral of protester killed in demonstrations

Record ID: 146297

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-FUNERAL/CLASHES Clashes break out after funeral of protester killed in demonstrations
  • Date: 27th July 2015
  • Summary: CIZRE, TURKEY (JULY 26, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CROWD MARCHING AND CHANTING SLOGANS AGAINST TURKISH GOVERNMENT AND WAVING FLAGS IN SUPPORT OF KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY (PKK) VARIOUS OF CROWD MARCHING NEXT TO HEARSE COFFIN OF PROTESTER ABDULLAH OZDAL, KILLED IN DEMONSTRATIONS, BEING CARRIED THROUGH CROWD CIZRE, TURKEY (JULY 27, 2015) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) TEAR GAS BEING
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACKF9FSJILUI42Y1HZRQO1260A
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Clashes broke out in southeast province of Cizre on Sunday (July 26) night after the funeral of a protester killed in demonstrations against military strikes targeting PKK camps in northern Iraq, private Dogan news agency reported.
    23-year old Abdullah Ozdal was shot dead during Saturday's (July 25) demonstrations and it was not immediately clear who fired the shot, agency said.
    Violence has escalated in Turkey after a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed 32 people this week in southeastern town of Suruc close to Syrian border.
    Many of those killed in the attack were Kurds and it kicked off waves of violence in the largely Kurdish southeast by militants who say Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party have covertly supported Islamic State against Syrian Kurds.
    Ankara denies the accusation.
    Turkey was long a reluctant member of the coalition against Islamic State, a stance that annoyed NATO ally Washington with the air strikes doing little so far to "degrade and destroy" IS capabilities, as President Barack Obama described their goal.
    Ankara has now, for the first time, taken a front-line role in the battle, apparently spurred to action by the suicide bombing in Suruc.
    On Sunday, four Turkish F-16 fighter jets deployed from the Diyarbakir air base, in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, hit PKK targets in Hakurk in northern Iraq, in a campaign that could end its peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
    Ankara, which called for a special NATO meeting on Tuesday (July 28) to discuss its security concerns, said two of soldiers were killed and four wounded in the latest attack by PKK militants.
    The outlawed PKK has waged an insurgency against Ankara for Kurdish autonomy since 1984. Opposition politicians and critics accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of taking up the campaign against Islamic State as political cover to clamp down on Kurds.
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