Kurdish protesters, security forces clash in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kurdish protesters clashed with security forces in Turkey's southeast on Sunday, ahead of demonstrations planned across the country to pressure the government to carry out reforms, Reuters reported.

The main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, the BDP, has called for marches in at least three major cities, to launch a summer of protests against what it sees as a lack of commitment by Ankara to a peace process with Kurdish militants.

The Kurdish unrest comes after weeks of unrelated anti-government protests in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities in which four people have died and thousands have been injured.

Security forces killed an 18-year-old man and wounded 10 others when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in the Kurdish-dominated southeast on Friday.

It was the most violent incident since a March ceasefire called by the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and threatens to derail the nascent peace process between the rebels and the state.

A few hundred protesters burned tires and closed a main road on Sunday near the Cizre district of Sirnak province, which borders both Syria and Iraq. Some threw firebombs at police who responded with water cannon and teargas, security sources said.

Pro-Kurdish marches were expected in the cities of Diyarbakir, Mersin and Adana. Diyarbakir is the main city in the southeast and Mersin and Adana, on the Mediterranean coast, have large Kurdish populations.