TURKEY: Rioters and police clash as funeral of Kurdish demonstrators killed on Wednesday turns violent

Record ID: 872811

  • Title: TURKEY: Rioters and police clash as funeral of Kurdish demonstrators killed on Wednesday turns violent
  • Date: 31st March 2006
  • Summary: WIDE SHOTS CROWDS AT RALLY; HIGH ANGLE SHOT COFFIN BEING CARRIED IN CROWD RALLY (7 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA4NLHBM7MG61NJ1LRPX5AZD7M
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Thousands of demonstrators lobbed stones and petrol bombs in clashes with police in the southern Turkish town of Diyarbakir on Thursday (March 30, 2006) after the funeral of three people who were killed during earlier clashes on Wednesday.
    The latest protest is the third day of street battles which have claimed three lives and wounded more than 250 people.
    The fresh fighting erupted during funerals for two young men and an eight-year-old boy killed during Wednesday's clashes in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
    The boy and one of the men were shot dead. The other man was crushed under a police armoured car, witnesses said. An investigation has been launched into the deaths, the governor said.
    The region has been a hot bed of trouble for the Turkish government with the local population supporting Kurdish groups against Ankara.
    After the rally, a large crowd marched to the cemetery. On the way protesters attacked a police station with petrol bombs and stones.
    Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Various people were reported wounded and police made several arrests.
    Protests also continued in other eastern Turkish cities of Van, Siirt and Batman.
    Hundreds have been clashing with police in Diyarbakir for two days since the funeral of 14 PKK members who were killed in an Turkish armed forces operation.
    Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.
    The PKK is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States. An estimated 5,000 rebels are holed up in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
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