Turkish-Kurdish clashes continue: demonstrators built barricades
Mass unrest and disorder shake Kurdish regions of Turkey urging the authorities to release former PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The rallies kicked off on Monday and turned into street fights in Haqqari and Yuksekova regions. Turkish media outlets report that the protestors and police officers collided which made the latter to use tear gas and water machines.
According to Turkish “Milliyet” some are arrested and wounded.
The situation is extremely tensed in Keklikpinar block of Haqqari region, where the demonstrators built barricades and check every singe vehicle driving in and out.
Abdullah Ocalan has been serving a lifetime sentence at a prison in Turkey since 1999. Between 1984 and his capture in 1999, he led a Kurdish nationalist guerrilla revolt against the Turkish state. Ocalan was arrested abroad by Turkey, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union. His prison is on Imrali in the Sea of Marmara.