UNIVERSITY STUDENT KILLED IN DIYARBAKIR BY POLICE

Aydin Erdem was 23 years old. His life ended on Sunday, when allegedly a policeman shot him in the back at close range. Aydin like thousands of other yaoung people was protesting in the kurdish city of Diyarbakir against the detention conditions of Pkk president, Abdullah Ocalan. In reality as always the protest was against the shut door that the turkish state continue to show in the face of the kurds, the turks and ultimately of peace.

Protesters in Diyarbak?r hurled stones and fireworks at police and at the local headquarters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s ruling party.

The police responded with pepper gas to disperse the crowds, with water cannons and finally with guns.

Lawyer and president of IHD (Human Rights Association) Diyarbakir Branch, Muharrem Erbey witnessed the autopsy of young Aydin Erdem and confirmed that the boy had a single gun shot in the back. He also confirmed that Aydin was shot at close range.

Police also broke up other pro-Kurdish protests in Istanbul and in at least three other cities in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast, NTV television said.

Turkey built a new maximum security prison on Öcalan’s prison island of Imrali and transferred inmates there to end his isolation.

Öcalan has complained about conditions at his new cell, triggering protests by his supporters. The leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, said in a statement released by his lawyers last month that his cell was smaller and that he had difficulties breathing.

Turkey denies prison conditions are worse and has invited European anti-torture inspectors to visit his new prison cell.

Turkey built the new prison after the Strasbourg, France-based human rights body, the Council of Europe, demanded that Turkey end Öcalan’s solitude, saying his mental state was deteriorating after spending years as the sole inmate of ?mral? island, off Istanbul.

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