15 reported killed as police, Kurdish protesters clash in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 12 people have been reportedly killed in clashes between the Turkish police and Kurdish protesters, who are furious about the authorities’ inaction in defending the town of Kobane in Syria from an attack by Islamic State militants.

The local media put the death toll at 15.

Riot police used tear gas and water cannon in a number of towns and cities as the disturbances spread across the country, including Ankara and Istanbul. Curfews were imposed in several predominantly Kurdish cities. They were mostly enforced in south-eastern Turkey after the unrest, which was worst in the cities of Mardin, Siirt, Batman and Mus, according to BBC News.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said that Turkey was doing "whatever can be done" for Kobane. He said that it was a "massive lie" that his country had done nothing for the town's inhabitants. Turkish troops and tanks have lined the border but have not crossed into Syria.

Fresh U.S.-led air strikes have tried to repel IS, but Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Kobane was "about to fall".

At least 400 people have died in three weeks of fighting for Kobane, monitors say, and 160,000 Syrians have fled. If IS captures Kobane, its jihadists will control a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the demonstrators of "betraying their own country" and warned them to stop protesting or encounter "unpredictable" consequences.

"Violence will be met with violence... This irrational attitude should immediately be abandoned and [the protesters] should withdraw from the streets," he told reporters in Ankara.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the biggest Kurdish party in Turkey, called for members and supporters to take to the streets to protest against the IS offensive. The PKK is seen as a terrorist group in Turkey, where decades of armed struggle against the Turkish government for self-determination has left both sides deeply mistrustful of each other.

Dozens of demonstrators smashed a glass door and entered the European Parliament, where President Martin Schulz promised to discuss the situation with EU leaders.

Hundreds more protesters demonstrated in Berlin and other German cities.

Meanwhile, groups of Kurds reportedly intending to cross the Turkish border to head for Kobane were stopped by border police.

According to one witness, about 300 Kurds were stopped in the border town of Suruc.

Last week, Turkey pledged to prevent Kobane from falling to IS and its parliament authorised military operations against militants in Iraq and Syria.

But Kurds have accused Turkey of simply standing by as IS advanced on the Syrian Kurds defending Kobane.