Violent clashes break out in Diyarbekir after Kurdish leader's trial

Central Diyarbakir was engulfed in a cloud of white, eye-burning smoke Thursday as police clashed with Kurdish protesters in front of the Diyarbakir municipality building and courthouse, where some 150 defendants were standing trial, accused of links to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Defendants in the case at the Diyarbakir courthouse, which has been ongoing since October, include Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir and 11 other mayors from Southeast Turkey, as well as local politicians. More than 100 defendants have been under arrest for a period of around 1.5 years.

Family members and other demonstrators, a mixed crowd of all ages, from children to grandmothers, originally gathered in Istasyon Square at noon on Thursday to protest the case, which resumed this week after its last hearing in 2010. The gathering in support of the defendants was organized by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), an umbrella organization of pro-Kurdish groups.

Clashes between demonstrators and police also broke out in the Southeast province of Hakkari and its district of Yüksekova. Shops did not open in the cities of Nusaybin, Cizre and Kızıltepe.

The scene had calmed in Diyarbakir by late afternoon, although the area around the courthouse remained crowded with police on guard as protesters sang while waiting for the court hearing to conclude for the day.

“I want my sons to be released,” 70-year-old Nazlihan said while waiting Thursday morning in front of the municipality building near the courthouse. Nazlihan, who spoke in Kurdish and declined to give her surname, said her two sons are among the defendants. Of her nine children, she said, three died in unsolved murders and two died fighting for the PKK.

“I want peace,” she said. “I do not believe that the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] will make peace, but I still have hope.”
Another person outside the building, a 70-year-old Kurdish man who declined to give his name, said he has come for every hearing.

“I am here because this case is against my language, identity and culture. This is a political case, it has nothing to do with the law,” he said.

Protesters and people gathered outside the courthouse also objected to the accused not being allowed to defend themselves in Kurdish.