Demonstrators clash with anti-riot police outside of the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) in Ankara on October 9, 2014 to denounce Turkey’s unwillingness to intervene militarily against ISIS forces in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds. (Photo: AFP – Adem Altan)
Updated at 1:02 pm (GMT +3): At least 31 people have been killed and 360 others injured in four days of violent protests in Turkey led by pro-Kurdish demonstrators against the government’s policy on Syria, the interior minister said Friday.
In addition to the toll of 31 people killed in protests, two policemen were shot dead in the southern city of Bingol late Thursday while inspecting the scene of a demonstration and five “terrorists” suspected of gunning them down were themselves killed, Interior Minister Efkan Ala told reporters.
Five “terrorists” suspected of gunning them down were themselves killed by the security forces, he confirmed.
“This spiral of violence should immediately be stopped,” he said in a statement.
“Everyone should do their part to put an end to these incidents. We should all stand in solidarity with each other.”
Ala said that clashes broke out in 35 cities and 221 civilians and 139 security officials including police were wounded.
More than 1,024 protestors have been detained and 58 people have formally been placed under arrest for their involvement in the protests which caused damage to 212 schools, he said.
The violence, which has been concentrated in south-eastern Turkey but also flared in Istanbul and Ankara, has been among the worst rioting seen in the country in years.
The official toll has already well exceeded the number of eight people confirmed to have been killed in the May-June 2103 nationwide protests against the ruling party.
Ten people died in eastern Turkey when gunmen opened fire on police, and Kurds angry over a siege by Islamist militants on their ethnic kin in Syria clashed with other groups in the country’s sixth
largest city, local media said on Friday.
largest city, local media said on Friday.
The violence came at a time of growing tensions in Turkey, with local Kurds furious over what they see as government indifference to the situation in neighboring Syria, where the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have laid siege to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane.
The policemen came under attack in Bingol city center while they were inspecting shops damaged in demonstrations earlier this week. There were no further details and no group claimed responsibility for the killings.
Thousands of Kurds have taken to the streets to protest against Ankara’s apparent reluctance to help Kobane, which lies on the Turkish-Syrian border and which risks falling into the hands of ISIS militants.
At least 30 people were killed earlier in the week as violence erupted during pro-Kobani demonstrations in towns and cities across the country.
A police chief and a policeman were seriously injured and two officers killed on Thursday after unidentified gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons as they inspected shops damaged during troubles earlier in the week in the eastern province of Bingol, according to Dogan News Agency.
Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more were caught following a shootout with security forces, the agency reported.
No details of the attackers were available early on Friday and no one claimed responsibility for the reported assassination attempt, the first of its kind since a senior police officer was gunned down in Diyabakir in 2001.
“Terrorists responsible for this (attack), were punished within one or two hours, all necessary measures taken,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara on Friday, without giving further details.
Curfews were imposed in five provinces — measures unseen since the 1990s when the region was rocked by fighting between military and Kurdish militants.
There was brief calm on the streets earlier on Thursday but that was replaced later in the day with gunfire and confrontation across Turkey’s east and southeast.
Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds after demonstrators threw petrol bombs, burnt tires and smashed shop windows.
Two buildings used as local branches linked to the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Gaziantep were set on fire, Dogan News Agency reported.
The anger felt by Turkey’s Kurds over Ankara’s failure to help their brethren in Syria threatens to unravel a fragile peace process that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan hoped would end a 30-year armed struggle for autonomy by the PKK.
ISIS fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobane on Thursday, as US-led air strikes failed to halt their advance.
(Reuters, Anadolu, AFP)
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