Clashes after Turkey detains Diyarbakir mayors
Turkish police clashed with protesters in Diyarbakir yesterday, using tear gas and water cannon to prevent them demonstrating against the detention of the Kurdishmajority city’s co-mayors. Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli were taken into custody on Tuesday night in a surprise move against the leaders of a city hit by renewed fighting between Turkish forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The two were detained as part of a “terrorism” probe, security officials said. The Diyarbakir prosecutor said in a statement that Kisanak and Anli were accused of having links to the PKK and “inciting violence”.
Hundreds of protesters tried to march to the town hall in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey, some throwing rocks at police, an AFP correspondent said. At least 25 protesters were now in custody, security sources said. According to the correspondent, there was no access to the internet in Diyarbakir since morning. Dogan news agency reported that from 10:30am (0730 GMT) other southeastern and eastern cities like Batman, Van, Elazig, Gaziantep and Kilis also could not access the internet.
‘No to intimidation’
Officers responded using batons, tear gas and water cannon to repel the protesters, the correspondent said. “The pressure will not intimidate us,” demonstrators chanted. The Diyarbakir governor’s office warned that any demonstrations yesterday were “unlawful” and would not be allowed, saying that since August 15, public gatherings and meetings were banned in the city.
Other rallies were planned elsewhere in Turkey including Istanbul in the city’s popular Istiklal Avenue. A group of around 50 people tried to hold a sit-in on the avenue as they carried a large banner saying: “Municipalities belong to the people-people cannot be taken over”, an AFP photographer said. But the police prohibited it and threatened to intervene, the photographer said, adding the group chanted: “We are shoulder to shoulder against facism” and “If you are quiet, you will be next”.
The prosecutor said Kisanak was accused of being a member of the PKK, while both individuals had made speeches in support of the rebel group. They are also alleged to have allowed the use of municipal vehicles for the “funerals of terrorist members”, the prosecutor added, referring to the PKK. The pro-Kurdish leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP) described the move against the mayors as “extremely unlawful and arbitrary”. In a statement, the party said the authorities’ actions showed a hostile attitude toward the political will of the Kurdish electorate. The HDP called on the international community not to remain silent to the “groundless and fabricated accusations” against the co-mayors.
‘Arms must be laid down’
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn described their detention as “worrying” in a statement yesterday. Although the EU proscribes the PKK as a terrorist organization, Mogherini and Hahn urged both sides to find a political solution. “Arms must be laid down and a process of internal political dialogue should start as a matter of priority, involving the elected representatives of the affected population,” they said.
More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first launched an insurgency in the southeast in 1984. A two-and-a-half-year ceasefire collapsed last July which led to almost daily attacks by the PKK against security forces while Ankara launched military operations in the southeast to rid urban areas of fighters. Last month, 24 mayors suspected of links to the PKK were suspended and replaced with officials close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) cofounded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the same month, the government suspended 11,500 teachers suspected of links to the PKK. —AFP