Tension High in Kurdistan

As the day draws to a close tension remains high

As the day draws to a close in many Turkish and Kurdish cities tension remains high. Police and soldiers are attacking the people who since Sunday night have been trying to retrieve the bodies of the 12 Kurdish guerrillas who lost their life between Friday and Saturday in Uludere. The Turkish army has been carrying out a heavy operation in the area for some days. Sunday night the people managed to retrieve the first body of the young guerrillas who have been left across the border into Iraqi Kurdistan. 

Again this morning some 300 people crossed the border once again to look for the other bodies. Thousands of people walked to the border and many more began to meet in different cities. BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) and the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block had called off all election initiatives and events and had call for a three days mourn. The group reaching the border included independent BDP-backed candidates Gültan K??anak and Hasip Kaplan, as well as Diyarbak?r Mayor Osman Baydemir. They walked for about an hour in the Biligan Hill region, part of the border province of Adana’s Yemi?li village. When they reached the border, they faced resistance from stepped-up Turkish security forces, which shot in the air when the group insisted upon crossing to the Iraqi side.

K??anak, Kaplan and Baydemir waited in the Bilican Hill region while other members of the group retrieved the corpses as more security special troops landed in the area from Sikorsky helicopters. The army’s presence remains very high.

The soldiers then blocked the BDP convoy carrying the corpses on its way back to Yemi?li village. The army seized the bodies, saying they need to undergo autopsies. The soldiers detained some of the people who crossed the border and entered Iraqi Kurdistan and attacked the crowd.

Demonstrations and marches were organised in many cities. In Diyarbak?r a crowded sit in was attacked by police. And police attacked protesters in Silvan, ??rnak’s Cizre and Silopi.

Police used gas bombs and pressurized water to disperse the crowd.

As reported on Sunday the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, did not open its Diyarbak?r election bureau Monday, either, out of “respect for the decision of the people” there.

“We are closing our only election office in Diyarbak?r, for the sake of respect for our people’s decision,” said CHP provincial leader Muzaffer De?er.

As the night approaches it looks like 5 corpses have been brought to Malatya Hospital, where strict security measures were taken.

The body of one guerrilla was met by fifty thousand people in Cizre after it had been retrieved by family from ??rnak State Hospital.

ANF / NEWS DESK

ANF NEWS AGENCY

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