Diyarbakir, Turkey: At least 14 people were killed as protests by pro-Kurdish demonstrators raged across Turkey over the government’s lack of action to save the Syrian town of Kobani officials said on Wednesday. Kobani is also known as Ain Al Arab in Arabic.
The violence was concentrated in the mainly Kurdish southeast but also flared in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities, where demonstrators clashed with police in the most serious pro-Kurdish rioting in years.
The Turkish army has been deployed on the streets of the cities of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van — which have large Kurdish populations — to impose a curfew, an unprecedented move in recent years.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has so far not intervened militarily against Daesh militants fighting for the majority-Kurdish border town of Kobani, to the fury of Turkey’s Kurds.
Eight of the deaths came in Turkey’s main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, where the most intense rioting took place overnight on Wednesday, a local security official said.
Five of them were killed by gunshots in clashes between pro-Kurdish activists and Islamists, Dogan news agency reported.
The clashes caused extensive damage in the city with shop fronts burnt-out and buses set on fire.
Two people were reported killed in Mardin, two in Siirt, and one in Batman and another in Mus, all cities in the southeast of Turkey with large populations of Kurds. Further protests were planned for Wednesday.
Kurdish militants have waged a deadly insurgency for three decades for self-rule in Turkey.
However, a peace process with the Turkish government appeared to be making progress until the Kobani stand-off, and the latest protests threaten to derail the talks entirely.
“We will never tolerate vandalism and other acts of violence aimed at disturbing the peace,” Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said in comments broadcast on state television.
“Attempts at violence and harm threatening the peace of our people will never be taken lightly,” he added.
Schools were closed in Diyarbakir and flights were cancelled, reports said. The protests first broke out on Monday night but Tuesday’s clashes were more severe.
Police also used tear gas and water cannon to disperse angry pro-Kurdish protests in Istanbul and Ankara.
In one act that enraged secular Turks, Kurdish demonstrators in Mardin set fire to a statue of the secular founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Kurds have been particularly irked by the reluctance of Turkish authorities, who are concerned by Kurdish separatism, to allow Kurds over the border to fight Daesh militants.
The government has parliamentary authorisation to use the military in Syria but says it will only send in troops if there is a coordinated international effort to oust President Bashar Al Assad.
