Kurdish joy erupts at festival
Source: Agencies |
March 21, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THOUSANDS of Kurds marked a spring festival across Turkey yesterday with many chanting support for a Kurdish rebel group and its imprisoned leader, as Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish troops clashed.
About 30 Kurds, wearing khaki guerrilla uniforms and flashing victory signs, marched in unison amid tens of thousands of Kurds gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Nowruz festival, which also drew large crowds in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast. Some protesters waved images of imprisoned rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, which is illegal.
Kurdish activists used the festival, which has ended in violence in the past, to highlight demands for autonomy and other rights such as education in the Kurdish language. The autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party threatened to "retaliate" against the military's anti-rebel operations, a news report said.
About 30 Kurds, wearing khaki guerrilla uniforms and flashing victory signs, marched in unison amid tens of thousands of Kurds gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Nowruz festival, which also drew large crowds in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast. Some protesters waved images of imprisoned rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, which is illegal.
Kurdish activists used the festival, which has ended in violence in the past, to highlight demands for autonomy and other rights such as education in the Kurdish language. The autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party threatened to "retaliate" against the military's anti-rebel operations, a news report said.
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