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| The Grand Turk |
| Fresh violence rattles Turkey-Kurd peace process |
| 2013-12-10 |
| [Al Ahram] Turkish riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Kurdish protesters armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails on Monday in a new upsurge of violence that has rattled the fragile grinding of the peace processor. Two demonstrators have been killed and four soldiers briefly kidnapped by guerrillas in the southeast of the country in the worst unrest since a ceasefire adopted by the outlawed Kurdish rebels nine months ago. Fierce festivities erupted for a fourth day on Monday in the far southeastern town of Yuksekova, where the trouble first broke out on Friday night over the alleged destruction of the graves of Kurdish fighters. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse about 3,000 Kurds who pelted them with rocks and Molotov cocktails and attacked police security cameras and street lights, an AFP correspondent said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused certain groups of trying to damage the grinding of the peace processor with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). "These are actions perpetrated by those who want to hurt the process," Erdogan said. "However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... we will continue the process... without falling into this trap." Interior Minister Muammer Guler on Monday denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! that PKK cemeteries in Yuksevoka had been destroyed, saying they were a "provocation" by unnamed radical groups. |
| Posted by:Fred |