Alwaght-Scuffles have broken out in the southeastern Turkey between security forces and Kurdish protesters demanding the release of the imprisoned leader of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan.
On Sunday, thousands of Kurds rallied in towns across southeastern Turkey on the 16th annual anniversary of Ocalan’s capture.
Shops kept their shutters lowered in a sign of protest, and demonstrators held up photographs of the 65-year-old PKK leader as they marched along the streets, chanting, “Long live leader Ocalan,”
Demonstrators and police clashed in the streets in the city of Sirnak, located approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara, as well as the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Police detained 17 protesters in Sirnak.
Similar demonstrations were also staged in the capital city, Ankara, and Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul.
“The Kurdistan freedom struggle will from now on aim for the freedom of leader Apo (Abdullah Ocalan). We will step up the struggle for a free Kurdistan,” PKK-linked political umbrella group, Koma Civaken Kurdistan (KCK), said in a statement on Sunday.
The Turkish government launched a peace process with the PKK in 2012 to put an end to the armed Kurdish campaign for autonomy.
The PKK subsequently declared a ceasefire with Ankara, and began pulling out from southeastern Turkey to camps in northern Iraq, where they are currently based.
The PKK had been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.