DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, (AFP)
Three people were killed and at least 16 injured in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast yesterday as clashes broke out between Kurdish protestors and the security forces, officials said.
Three soldiers, meanwhile, perished in a land mine explosion blamed on Kurdish rebels.
The unrest in Yuksekova town, in the province of Hakkari, underscored escalating tension in the region over a deadly bomb attack in nearby Semdinli last week, which is widely blamed on members of the security forces.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is under strong public pressure to shed light on the bombing, urged calm and renewed pledges that those responsible would be punished.
Yuksekova Mayor Salih Yildiz said that three people were killed and many others were injured in the unrest, but could not give further details.
At least eight protestors, seven policemen and a soldier were injured, some of them seriously, Anatolia news agency reported.
The security forces used tear gas and fired in the air after a crowd protesting the Semdinli bombing refused to disperse and began pelting them with stones, it said.
The protestors set ablaze a medical center and erected barricades in the streets, witnesses said.
Two armored vehicles were reportedly overturned.
The security forces also raided a house and rescued a soldier who was kidnapped while passing through the town center on his way home, Anatolia said.
The November 9 bombing of a bookstore in Semdinli owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla killed one person, and a second man was shot dead in riots that followed the attack, sparking almost daily protests and clashes in the restive southeast.
“I invite our brothers in both Semdinli and Yuksekova to be calm and prudent,” Erdogan said in Ankara. “We will follow up on this incident, no matter where it leads, and whoever has to pay the price will pay it.” Erdogan said, however, it was too early to conclude the investigation, charging that certain groups were fueling the violence in the southeast.
The ruling Justice and Development Party called for a parliamentary inquiry into the incident, saying the bombing might have been a plot to undermine government efforts to expand freedoms and boost Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
“The incident — in terms of the way it developed, the people who were allegedly involved and the weapons and materials found at the site — is grave and thought-provoking,” the party said.
An angry crowd tried to lynch three suspects after the bombing.
One of them, who allegedly hurled the bomb and was later arrested, turned out to be a former Kurdish guerilla working as an informer for military police.
The two others — both police officers — were set free, while a third soldier, accused of firing at the crowd, was also arrested.
Weapons and documents, including a map of Semdinli, a sketch of the bookstore and a list of people, including the bookstore owner, were reportedly found in a car outside the bookstore.
Three soldiers were also killed yesterday when a land mine planted on a rural road in Van province, which borders Hakkari, was detonated by remote control, local officials said.
Security forces launched an a search for the perpetrators, believed to be members of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Tensions have mounted in Turkey’s Kurdish-populated regions since the PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce in June 2004, shattering a period of relative calm.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule.