Kurdish demonstrators clash with Turkish soldiers on Ocalan birthday
By Associated Press
April 4, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey - Police and soldiers fired warning shots into the air and used
tear gas and truncheons Wednesday to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing Kurdish
protesters in southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan).
The protesters wanted to travel to the village of Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah
Ocalan to mark his 58th birthday, reports said.
The clashes erupted when police and soldiers blocked a highway and stopped a
convoy of around 4,000 Kurds near the town of Halfeti in Sanliurfa province.
Angry Kurds, shouting slogans in support of Ocalan, began throwing stones at the
soldiers and police, prompting them to open fire into the air, the private Dogan
news agency said.
Some of the protesters and at least one police officer were slightly injured, it
said. The group wanted to travel to the village of Omerli, where Ocalan was
born, near the town of Birecik.
In Birecik, Turkish authorities distributed toys and food to keep Kurdish
children in school as demonstrators gathered downtown.
”We distributed kebabs at high schools and toys at the primary school to prevent
the manipulation of the children,” said Tuncay Sonel, governor of the
southeastern town of Birecik.
Ocalan is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul for leading a
separatist war for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.
The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 37,000 people since 1984.
