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AT LEAST 21 people were killed in pro-Kurdish protests over the government’s failure to act against jihadists attacking the Syrian border city of Kobane.
The disturbances were the worst outbreak of such pro-Kurdish violence in years and risked derailing Turkey’s own fragile peace process with the Kurds.
The army was deployed to impose a curfew in several cities in the east.
The violence was concentrated in the mainly Kurdish southeast but also flared in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities, with empty buses firebombed and protesters hurling stones at police.
In capital Ankara, security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed “hooligans” for the unrest that threatens to hurt a fragile peace process between Ankara and Kurdish rebels.
I urge my fellow citizens… not to let themselves be exploited by marginal groups and I reiterate that public order will be restored by any means.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has so far not intervened militarily against Islamic State (IS) jihadists trying to take Kobane, to the fury of Turkey’s Kurds.
Ten of the deaths came in Turkey’s main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, where the most intense rioting took place overnight.
Five of the deaths were blamed on clashes between Kurdish activists and supporters of the HUDA-PAR Kurdish Sunni Islamist group which is sympathetic to IS.
Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker blamED the clashes on the “lobby of chaos”, saying:
Everyone should refrain from expressing their hatred and displaying violence so that the protests do not spread.
The clashes caused extensive damage in the city with shop fronts burned out and buses set on fire.
Other people were reported killed in Mardin, Siirt, Batman, Mus and Van – all cities in the southeast of Turkey with large populations of Kurds.
The Turkish army has been deployed on the streets in parts of six cities to enforce an open-ended curfew.
In Diyarbakir, Turkish troops and tanks were patrolling the city of 1.5 million people and the usually thronged streets were deserted, an AFP correspondent reported.
Schools were closed in Diyarbakir until Monday and all flights into the city were cancelled.
‘Peace under threat’
The world’s largest stateless people, Kurds are spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. 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 Kobane standoff.
Police also used tear gas and water cannon to disperse angry pro-Kurdish protests in Istanbul on Tuesday night. Some 98 demonstrators were arrested and dozens injured, Turkish television reported.
The violence even spread outside Turkey’s borders, with street clashes between hundreds of Kurdish and Islamist supporters in Germany’s northern port city of Hamburg leaving 23 people wounded overnight.
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.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which battled Turkish forces since 1984 in an insurgency that has claimed 40,000 lives, has largely observed a ceasefire since March last year.
But jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan said in a message relayed by his brother from his prison on the island of Imrali on the Sea of Marmara that the government had until mid-October to show it was serious about the peace process.
“Peace under threat,” headlined the Hurriyet daily above an apocalyptic picture of vehicles on fire in the protests.
Kurds, who make up from 15 to 20% of Turkey’s population and are its largest minority, have been particularly irked by the reluctance of the authorities to allow Turkish Kurds to cross the border to fight Islamic State jihadists.
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.
Wow. RTE Celebrities complaining that the world doesn’t love their podcasts.
Newsflash. Your not in Montrose now Toto.
You’d get a bit tired of listening to hours and hours of content talking about mental health
@Ned Gerblansky: Bressies podcast is actually very interesting, and very helpful, which is why it’s won an award.
@Ned Gerblansky: Yip, while people with mental illness are struggling because mental ” health” is taking away valuable resources. Learn how to meditate, exercise and become more resilient. It’s pretty simple and it’s free.
@Ned Gerblansky: Now they’re whining that they can’t make money from it. FFS.
@D’oh: where do you see them whining?
Blindboy isn’t talented. Take the bloody bag off your head, it was funny for 5 minutes, 10 years ago
@Dub Cell: he doesn’t do it to be funny. Also, I think 2 best selling books, constant sold out live podcasts and a listenership of over 1m people each week will say otherwise.
You wouldn’t know talent if it smacked you in the face
@Dub Cell: could you be more wrong!?
@Tom: He’s spouting out populist dseudo intellectual drivel.
@Tom: it’s a matter of opinion Tom, I’m entitled to mine as you are to yours. I feel he jumps on bandwagons (gretha) and uses intellectual sound bites which appeals to his liberal followers. He made a song called “horse outside” ffs, he’s hardly Christopher Hitchens material
@Dub Cell: I heard an interview with Blindboy on the radio about 2 years ago (Guess what, it was dealing with mental health!). Inside about 20 minutes, in an effort to agree with opiniond coming in from listeners, he contradicted himself twice.
How can he win in the British Podcast Awards when he’s Irish? Are the Brits at it again?
podcasts are so last decade !
@ed w: No, they are the future, so much to listen to and you can pick and choose what you want and when you want, and they are not restricted by radio rule and you can support them if you want. Haven’t really listened to a radio show in ages.
I suppose the reason podcasts are not included in the JNL RADIO listeners figures is in the name. It’s a different medium. Listening to a podcast is a more focussed and deliberate activity than listening to the radio, which might be just on in the background, being listened to by multiple people. What advertisers need is a JNLP statistic.
@Conall: The article misses pointing out a very important fact …the JNLR research costs thousands and thousands of euro to conduct the listenership survey and compile the ratings – this is paid for (jointly -the hint is in the title ) by radio stations who use the findings to sell advertising – are the podcasters going to contribute and pay for the research to be commissioned or included in JNLR – somebody has to actually fund the research it is not free – and the model that evolved for radio made perfect sense to get it ot this point – makes sense to ask now HOW to move forward but just reads like having a rant without addressing the key issue -how much Poscasters are willing to who wants to actually PAY for the research to be commissioned – there is a big shift underway in terms of listening habits and a similar shift required in terms of the model to monetize podcasting etc
Can’t take Breslin seriously. Tired of z listers pushing this stuff. RTE isn’t much better with its rampant nepotism over the years.
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