ISTANBUL – Clashes erupted in Istanbul’s busy Beyoglu district yesterday as around 200 Kurds protesting at the banning of a leading Kurdish party clashed with Turkish nationalists and police, Turkish media reported.
Protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs at shops, cars and businesses in the heart of the shopping and entertainment district of Turkey’s biggest city, before a group of knife-wielding Turkish nationalists gathered and tried to attack them, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. Riot police separated the groups and dispersed protesters after a third day of violent street protest since Turkey’s highest court ruled to dissolve the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), dealing a blow to government efforts to end decades of conflict in the EU candidate country.
Late last night police had closed the street leading to the main DTP office in Istanbul and a police armoured vehicle stood guard.
Turkey’s constitutional court banned the DTP on Friday after it found it guilty of co-operating with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist guerrillas. In the southeast of Turkey, the focus of most violent protest since the ruling, demonstrators hurled fire bombs and rocks at riot police in the town of Yuksekova.
Police shot into the air to disperse the crowds. Several protesters were arrested.
The verdict threatens to undermine prime minister Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK party’s drive to reconcile minority Kurds with the state and end decades of conflict.
– (Reuters)