TURKEY: Police use batons, teargas and water cannon to disperse Kurdish protesters in eastern Turkey
Record ID:
708313
TURKEY: Police use batons, teargas and water cannon to disperse Kurdish protesters in eastern Turkey
- Title: TURKEY: Police use batons, teargas and water cannon to disperse Kurdish protesters in eastern Turkey
- Date: 26th October 2008
- Summary: (EU) VAN, TURKEY (OCTOBER 25, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PRO KURDISH RALLY PEOPLE LEAVING POLICE MOBILISING WATER CANNONS PROTESTERS THROWING STONES AT POLICE POLICE FIRING TEARGAS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS THROWING STONES AT POLICE RIOT POLICE CHASING PROTESTERS POLICE BEATING PROTESTERS VARIOUS OF POLICE DETAINING PROTESTERS POLICE SEARCHING DETAINED PROTESTERS PROTESTERS SETTING BARRICADE WATER CANNON SPRAYING PROTESTERS
- Embargoed: 10th November 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Police,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA22BUSUJV1FBER2NUWO2RQA658
- Story Text: Riot police detained Kurdish protesters in the eastern Turkish city of Van on Saturday (October 25), after thousands demonstrated over an alleged attack on jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The protests were called by Turkey's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in response to what it called a "physical attack" on Ocalan.
Turkish authorities deny any mistreatment of Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on an island in the Marmara Sea.
The crowd carried pictures of the PKK leader, and chanted slogans in support of the Kurdish separatist group.
Police used teargas and water cannon to disperse some groups attacking police with stones after the rally, and made a number of arrests.
Dozens of protesters have been detained in various Kurdish-populated cities in eastern Turkey over the past week.
On Monday (October 20) one protester died of gunshot wounds when Kurdish demonstrators fought police in eastern Turkey.
Tensions in the region have been exacerbated by a series of deadly PKK attacks on soldiers. The military has responded by pounding suspected PKK positions inside Turkey and in northern Iraq, where many of the rebels are based.
Some 40,000 people have died in PKK-related violence since 1984, when the group took up arms to try to carve an ethnic Kurdish homeland out of southeast Turkey.
PKK guerrillas are still active in southeast Turkey, however the level of violence is much lower than before Ocalan's 1999 capture.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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