Pro-Kurdish party calls for nationwide protests in Turkey
The BDP sent an order, signed by party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak, to all of its provincial and district branches, party assembly members, provincial heads, mayors, women’s and youth assemblies.
“This massacre is a counter-operation and purge of those circles who don’t want the settlement of the Kurdish issue,” the letter said. The letter said the BDP branches “must send a strong answer to this massacre with protests everywhere today and tomorrow.”
At least two people were killed when clashes broke out after police did not allow a group affiliated with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to hold a march on Friday in a town in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Protest quickly turned violent after the PKK-linked group defied police warnings, set up barricades and threw stones at riot police in Yüksekova, a stronghold of the militant group. The group claimed some graves of PKK members had been damaged. It held a demonstration in protest and engaged in clashes with the police.