ANKARA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - An unknown assailant fired a gunshot at the
headquarters of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party on Wednesday but
nobody was hurt, party officials said.
The incident came a day after two bomb blasts in the Aegean city of Izmir which
killed one person and injured nearly a dozen others. No one has claimed
responsibility for the attack, but Turkish media have blamed it on armed Kurdish
separatists.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) is also at loggerheads with
Turkey's powerful army generals, who accuse it of backing terrorism through its
refusal to condemn the Kurdish rebel guerrillas.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has also urged the DTP, which has 20 members in
the parliament, to denounce the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK).
Senior DTP official Mustafa Sarikaya told Reuters: "This attack is the result of
state officials and the media targeting our party."
The gunman escaped by car after firing the shot, the DTP officials said. Police
found a 9 mm cartridge case at the scene, in an Ankara suburb.
The DTP, which seeks more freedoms for Turkey's large ethnic Kurdish minority,
says it rejects violence but many Turks regard it as just a mouthpiece for the
PKK rebels.
