ANKARA, Turkey – Two protesters were killed and many wounded in confrontations with the Turkish military in the Kurdish town of Lice over the building of new military bases.
Harun Erkus, co-chair of the Lice municipality, said that police threw gas bombs at tents housing protesters, killing 24-year-old Ramazan Baran and 45-year-old Baki Akdemir.
Thousands in the Lice district of Diyarbakir have been on the streets for days, condemning Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s “unwillingness to solve the Kurdish issue and the continuous building of military bases.”
Local residents in Lice said that Turkish soldiers also joined the raid against the protestors, torching their tents and opening fire, mainly last Thursday night. In response, protestors gathered on one of the main roads, blocking all traffic.
Nevriye Kacan, a mother who attended the protests, said that soldiers opened fire at the protesters with live ammunition.
“We were shouting slogans calling for peace, but they opened fire at us,” she said. “Achieving peace is in the hands of the government. We will not leave here even if it costs us our lives.”
Yunus Muratakan, a lawyer who attended the autopsy on the victims, said that Baran had died from two gunshot wounds.
Abdullah Akkulun, a protestor badly wounded in the attack, is in a critical condition, according to his father.
Durdane Eren, a female protester, said that the aim of the demonstrations had been to help achieve peace with the government. “But in response, thousands of soldiers attacked an area in which there were only 10 mothers,” she said.
These were not the first protests against the so-called new Turkish military bases built in areas abandoned by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) last year.
In March 2013, jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan announced a peace process with Ankara, to end three decades of war with the Turkish government for greater Kurdish rights.
Last week, leaders of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) warned Ankara that the demonstrations would continue unless the government ceased building army bases and reciprocated PKK’s goodwill of withdrawing fighters as part of the deal.
Metin Bakkalci, the secretary general of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), told Rudaw that new military posts remind people of their past grievances “which is very dangerous.”
Bakkalci believes that the calm ensured by last year’s peace deal has provided a chance for lasting peace in the area.
“We as a human rights organization have said that the fact that there has been no armed conflict in the region for a year is a great opportunity for achieving peace. But the government should take the necessary steps urgently to make this situation permanent,” he said.
There have been similar protests in Turkey’s other Kurdish areas.
Gulistan Akel, the co-chair of Batman municipality whose city has seen major demonstrations, said the AKP “has accelerated the construction of security dams, new prisons and military posts,” violating the terms of the peace agreement with the PKK.
The Human Rights Association (IHD) in Turkey has joined the Kurds in criticizing the construction of more military posts, saying in a press release that, “The most important problem in our region that causes tension is the construction of high-security military posts.”
IHD reported that, according to data and official statements by the Turkish defense ministry, 341 new military posts have been tendered, out of which 102 have been built.
The town of Lice has a tragic history and suffered most from the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish army. In June 1993, the military imposed a four-day curfew, following the killing of a senior officer. It is believed that some 20 people were killed and three-fourths of the town’s buildings were demolished during the military operation.
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