Kurds stage violent protest on anniversary of rebel leader's capture
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Dozens of Kurdish protesters armed with stones battled with Turkish police Friday in a southeastern city to mark the ninth anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
The demonstrators threw rocks at police and smashed windows of shops that did not join the protest by shuttering their stores in the city of Hakkari near the borders of Iraq and Iran. Police fired warning shots in the air to disperse them.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Several shops shut down their doors elsewhere in the Kurdish-dominated southeast on Friday after being reportedly threatened by Ocalan's rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, which faces closure on charges of ties to the rebel organization, put up a black flag outside its office in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region.