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Several pro-Kurdish demonstrations took place across Turkey on Wednesday as people were enraged over their government’s lack of action regarding the Syrian Kurdish border town Kobane. According to government officials, at least 14 people were killed in the protests.
The violence was mostly in the pre-dominantly Kurdish southeast but also flared up in Ankara, Istanbul and other cities, where protestors and police clashed in the most serious pro-Kurdish riots in the country in recent years. The army has been deployed in the cities of Van, Mardin and Diyarbakir, all of which have a significant Kurdish population, to impose a curfew.
The ruling government has not intervened militarily so far against the Islamic State (IS) in Kobane, much to the fury of the Kurdish people in Turkey.
Eight of the deaths happened in the city of Diyabakir, where rioting had mostly taken place overnight. Five of them had been killed by gunshot, the Dogan news agency reported. The clashes also caused extensive damage to property in the city, with several shop fronts burnt down and buses being set on fire.
Additionally, two people were reported to have been killed in the city of Mardin, two in Batman, two in Siirt, and one person in Mus, all cities with large Kurdish in the southeastern part of the country.
Considered the world’s largest stateless people, the Kurds are spread across Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Kurdish militants have for decades waged a deadly insurgency for self-rule in Turkey. They were seemingly in the midst of making peace with the Turkish government until the standoff due to Kobane, which threatens to derail the peace talks entirely.
“We will never tolerate vandalism and other acts of violence aimed at disturbing the peace.Attempts at violence and harm threatening the peace of our people will never be taken lightly”, Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said on state television.