24 Hurt as Turkish Police Clash with Kurds
Twenty-four people were wounded Tuesday when Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas against Kurdish demonstrators gathered for the community's New Year, a security source said.
The latest clashes erupted two days after New Year festivities in Istanbul and elsewhere saw at least nine people injured.
More than 10,000 people took to the streets in the southeastern town of Batman on Tuesday for an unauthorized demonstration to mark Navroz, the Kurdish New Year.
The rally was held outside a government-sanctioned date and riot police reacted by firing water cannon and tear gas, the local security source said.
Demonstrators in turn threw rocks and attacked police with sticks.
Fifteen people were injured, including one seriously. Among the wounded was Ahmet Turk, a deputy in the Kurdish parliament.
In Cizre, in Sirnak province which borders Iraq, two police officers were shot and wounded and three others injured by stones when they sought to stop the celebration, security officials said.
One civilian also suffered injuries when he was hit by stones.
Three officers were also wounded, one seriously, when they were shot at in the town of Yuksekova, in Hakkari province which borders Iran and Iraq.
Turkish authorities rejected a Kurdish demand to mark Navroz on Sunday, the day of rest in Turkey, designating Wednesday as the only day authorized for New Year celebrations, which are traditionally used by Turkey's Kurdish minority to press for greater rights.
On Sunday, thousands of Kurds clashed with police in Istanbul and the southern city of Diyarbakir, leaving nine people injured as security forces tried to stop festivities.
Demonstrators Tuesday chanted slogans in support of Abdullah Ocalan, the former leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who was jailed for life in 1999.
The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. It is labeled a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.
Turkey has arrested hundreds of suspects in recent months suspected of colluding with the PKK.
The bloodiest Navroz in Turkey occurred in 1992, when some 50 people were killed by security forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.