Pro-Kurdish party calls for nationwide protests in Turkey

8  December 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL -The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has called for nationwide protests across Turkey after two Kurdish protesters were killed in clashes in southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari on Friday.

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.