Clashes Between the Kurds and the Turkish Police

• 02.15.2015, 18:10
•  Region,  World

On the 16^th anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan’s, the PKK leader’s capture thousands of Kurds rallied in the southeastern towns of Turkey, Reuters reports. In the city Jizra the rally ended with clashed between the Kurds and the police. According to Turkish sources, the demonstrators threw bottles of flammable liquid in the direction of the police and the latter used tear gas. There are people arrested.

In Turkey the activities of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) is banned. As a result of three-decade-old conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK almost 40 thousand people died. On Saturday the Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu declared that the peace process has reached a critical stage and that Turkey should get rid of arms.

The draft joint statement prepared by Deputy PM Yalçın Akdoğan and the HDP delegation has already been sent to the PKK headquarters in Iraq. As Hurriyet informs, this joint statement was a condition put forward by the jailed leader PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, for the announcement of a "reinforced cease-fire." The text includes 10 demands from Öcalan and the HDP concerning a "democratic republic."