ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Anti-riot police in Turkey shot dead two Kurdish protesters on Friday during a demonstration in support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and political parties warned of provocations aimed at derailing a fragile peace process between Ankara and the country’s large minority Kurds.
Hundreds attended the protests in the Yuksekova district in Hakkari province, against alleged acts of vandalism on several PKK graveyards in Yuksekova’s Orman neighborhood.
Two Kurdish protesters, Veysel Isbilirn and his nephew Mehmet Resit Isbilir, both in their mid-30s, where killed in the police attack on protesters.
According to the pro-PKK Firat News, Turkish forces stationed special teams with armored vehicles around the hospital where the two bodies were taken, to prevent relatives and others from seeing the bodies.
Firat News also reported that police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.
In an operation that appeared in retaliation for the killings, the PKK set up checkpoints at highways in Diyarbakir and reportedly kidnapped four Turkish soldiers.
So far, there has been no confirmation or denial of that incident by the group, which has been engaged in a months-long peace process with Ankara to end a three-decade war for Kurdish rights in which an estimated 40,000 people have died.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan linked the reported kidnapping of the soldiers to the Yuksekova incident, saying they were aimed at sabotaging the peace process.
“These are actions perpetrated by those who want to hurt the process,” Erdogan said, according to the Dogan news agency. “The same way the Hakkari incidents also were steps and actions taken by those who wanted to damage the process. This is a similar event,” he was quoted as saying.
The news agency said that Erdogan vowed he remained committed to the peace process and demanded immediate release of the soldiers.
“We will continue this process under any circumstances, without falling into this trap. We call for the immediate release of our soldiers,” he said.
The Kurdish HDK (Peoples' Democratic Congress), Istanbul Provincial Assembly and HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) condemned the killing of the Kurdish protestors in Yuksekova. They said they would hold a protest gathering outside the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul today.
Meanwhile, the co-leaders of the HDK, Sebahat Tuncel and Ertugrul Kurkcu, accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of attempts to spoil the peace process.
"The AKP's cowardice is encouraging an alliance of uniformed and civilian bureaucrats and certain representatives of political parties who want to sabotage the peace process," said a statement by the two leaders.
Like Erdogan, Tuncel and Kurkcu vowed to prevent any attempts to sabotage the process and said they were committed to working for a new and democratic Turkey.
Officials of the pro-Kurdish HDP and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), who met with the jailed PKK leader Abullah Ocalan on Saturday, quoted him as warning of efforts to sabotage the ongoing peace process with Ankara.
“These murders are an extreme provocation toward the process. Everyone must be more aware than ever of bigger provocations. The best way to commemorate these two sons of the people is to perpetuate their names in the struggle for peace and freedom," Ocalan said, according to a statement by the two parties.
The PKK leader reportedly also advised against short-term gains for the election at the expense of the peace process.
“Whoever delays democratic steps for the sake of short-term election calculations will be inviting chaos and conflict and jeopardizing this process, whose aim is the liberation of Turkey and the region and the establishment of a truly democratic republic,” Ocalan was quoted as saying.
