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March 5, 2009
News
Two dead and scores injured as Turkish security forces fire into crowd of Kurds
Kurdishaspect.com
Two people have died in southeastern Turkey as Turkish security forces tried to stop Kurds from celebrating Abdullah Öcalan’s birthday, reported Roj TV.
The dead have been identified as Mustafa Dağ, 27, and Mahsum Karaoğlan, 21. 60 others were injured as security forces continued their siege on the crowd.
Today is the birthday of Abdullah Öcalan the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). This year a crowd of Kurds decided to celebrate by going to Öcalan’s home village of Amara, Sanliurfa province, to plant trees as a sign of peace.
As the large crowd approached the village, Turkish military police and other security forces began to encircle them. When the crowd refused to disperse the security forces began firing into the crowd with rubber bullets and teargas.
This current act by the Turkish state follows 4 days of protests against election fraud during local elections on the weekend. Supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) have accused the government of election fraud in a number of provinces in the Kurdish southeast of the country.
In the Kurdish majority Agri province the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) narrowly won placing the DTP in second place. What is alarming is that 3000 voting papers for DTP were found thrown away.
The government declared a state of emergency as Kurds began to protest. Journalists including 2 from Germany were banned and their films were confiscated.
A video of the protests in Agri was secretly taken from nearby apartments and posted on YouTube.
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