A prominent Kurdish lawyer and a Turkish police officer were killed on Saturday when clashes erupted after he spoke at a news conference in Turkey’s volatile southeast.
The lawyer, Tahir Elci, president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, and the police officer were shot by attackers who opened fire at security forces from a car in the southeastern district of Sur, Turkish Minister of the Interior Efkan Ala said.
Another police officer was seriously wounded.
Photo: AFP
No group immediately claimed responsibility, and there were conflicting reports about the gunmen’s intent.
The Diyarbakir Bar Association said in a Twitter message that Elci had been assassinated.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party also condemned the attack as a “planned assassination.”
“In the place left by Tahir Elci, thousands more Tahir Elcis will carry on the work in the struggle for law and justice,” the party said in a statement, which also called on people to “raise their voices” to protest the killing.
Later on Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched in Istanbul, chanting “shoulder to shoulder against fascism.” The police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
A video clip posted on the Web site of the privately-owned Dogan news agency showed gunmen hiding behind the minaret of a mosque and firing on Elci and a group of activists. At least 11 people were wounded in the attack, according to initial reports.
The semiofficial Anadolu Agency said Kurdish militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had singled out Elci and a group of lawyers during clashes that broke out between the militants and Turkish security forces after the news conference.
Kurdish activists denied that claim and said Elci had become a target after he was charged last month with supporting Kurdish rebels.
Violence has surged in the restive southeast since July, with the renewal of an old conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish state that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives since the 1980s.
“We do not want arms, clashes, operations in this area, which has hosted numerous civilizations,” Elci said on Saturday in the news conference before the attack.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday confirmed the reports of Elci’s death and said the attack showed that Turkey was right to pursue its fight against terrorism.
Elci, an outspoken activist who has argued many cases before the European Court of Human Rights, was arrested last month after being charged with terrorist propaganda for saying during a live news program that the PKK was not a terrorist organization.
His remarks prompted an outcry from Turkish nationalists, and a Turkish prosecutor said he could be sentenced to more than seven years in prison if convicted. Elci had been released from detention, pending the opening of this trial.
After he was charged, Elci said he received hundreds of death threats from Turkish nationalists.
“This is just a part of the job,” Elci said earlier this month. “I’m not afraid, but I know that I am now in danger. I’ve been getting death threats on a daily basis. It’s quite worrying.”
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