TURKEY: Clashes erupt during Kurdish hunger strike protest

Record ID: 340995

  • Title: TURKEY: Clashes erupt during Kurdish hunger strike protest
  • Date: 17th November 2012
  • Summary: CIZRE, TURKEY (NOVEMBER 17, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SUPPORTING HUNGER STRIKE PRAYING AS SMOKE BILLOWS OUT FROM THE AREA VARIOUS OF STONES AND PETROL BOMBS BEING THROWN AT A WATER CANNON, WATER CANNON SPRAYING WATER WATER CANNON SPRAYING WATER PROTESTERS RUNNING AWAY FIRECRACKERS AND SMOKE GRENADES EXPLODING PROTESTERS ON TOP OF FIRE TRUCK, S
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA91RSCRYCCTY5V7S89AW2HWEQ2
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Kurdish protesters clashed with police in southeastern Turkey on Saturday (November 17) as they showed their support for hunger striking prisoners.
    Some 700 Kurdish inmates in dozens of prisons are refusing solid food. They want Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government to allow the leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, to have access to lawyers after 15 months of no contact.
    Riot police in Cizre province used smoke grenades and water cannons to disperse the crowd as protesters pelted armoured police vehicles with firecrackers, stones and petrol bombs.
    Tensions have been high in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey for several weeks, as the prisoners have refused food for almost 70 days.
    The hunger strikers are consuming sugared water and vitamins that will keep them and their protest alive, but Turkey's main medical association has warned fatalities are possible after weeks without food.
    The inmates have been joined by six of Turkey's leading Kurdish politicians, who have also stopped eating.
    The militants appear to have achieved the aim of being able to speak in their own language in court after the government said it would send a bill to parliament on the matter.
    Most of the inmates are either convicted PKK members or accused of links to the group.
    Erdogan's government has boosted Kurdish cultural and language rights since taking power a decade ago, but Kurdish politicians are seeking greater concessions, including steps towards autonomy for mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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