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SWEDEN Shooting sidelines of a pro-Kurdish rally in Stockholm, one seriously injured

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arton122113-480x270A man was shot and critically wounded on the sidelines of a pro-Kurdish rally that was held in the suburbs of Stockholm, have we learned Sunday from the police.

“The incident took place yesterday in Fittja. The victim, who was there in connection with the rally, was injured by bullets, “he told AFP a police spokeswoman Ewa Nilsson.

The person, whose identity was not revealed, was in critical condition, she said. The assailant fled by car and had not been arrested early Sunday afternoon.

According to local press, the victim was in a minibus covered with Kurdish flags which followed the demonstrators.

According to the organizers of the rally, the shooting a “political” reasons.

“This is a direct attack against the demonstration against the Kurds,” said one of their representatives, quoted by Swedish news agency TT.

According to TT, the intelligence agencies involved in the investigation.

Sunday, February 14, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Turkey: Pro-Kurdish DTK’s co-chair says Kurds have right to self-governance

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DTK Co-chair Hatip Dicle. (Photo: Cihan)

DTK Co-chair Hatip Dicle. (Photo: Cihan)

Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-chair Hatip Dicle said on Sunday that Kurds have the right to self-governance and that the DTK supports the demands of Kurds living in Turkey.

“Self-governance is a right and is guaranteed in international conventions. It is a legitimate demand. The DTK and other institutions affiliated with the party support the struggle [for self-governance for Turkey’s Kurds]. The war that the government is trying to provoke is both unlawful and unethical,” Dicle said during a press conference held jointly by the DTK and three other pro-Kurdish parties.

The DTK, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) held a press conference in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Sunday evening to voice their objections to the ongoing large-scale operations being conducted by the Turkish security forces in urban areas in the Southeast and the days-long curfews imposed in several southeastern towns.

Condemning the offensive launched by the government in the Southeast, the pro-Kurdish politicians said that the Kurds would fight back. Dicle said it was the government that ended the settlement process launched in 2012 by the government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to end Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem, adding that the only solution to end the problem is democratic autonomy. “We want to bring this demand to public attention after we discuss it during our party congress to be held between Dec. 26 and 27. We hope this solution will stop the ongoing chaos in the region.”

Terrorist State of Turkey jailed A newly elected pro-Kurdish MP sentenced to 6 years in prison

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arton118996-480x320Turkish court sentenced Friday to six years and three months in prison for belonging to a “terrorist organization,” a member of the main pro-Kurdish party in the country, elected earlier this month in Parliament, local media reported.
After a lengthy trial, a court in Van (East) held Lezgin Botan, a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), guilty of being part of the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), which includes all the rebel movements

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish leader unharmed after bullet hits car

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Breaking-NewsNov 22 A gunshot was fired at the car of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas on Sunday evening, a spokesman for his political party said.

The rear window of Demirtas’s bullet-proof car was hit by a bullet as it was driving in the city of Diyarbakir in the largely Kurdish southeast of the country, the spokesman said.

“Death is God’s command,” Demirtas tweeted after the apparent assassination attempt. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay

Terrorist State of #Turkey sentenced to jail pro-Kurdish MP over alleged PKK links

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f75fc0ed-1d5f-4ebc-a6d0-e60fbff498f7

This photo, provided by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, shows Turkish and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Lezgin Botan (2nd-L).

A court in Turkey has sentenced a lawmaker from the country’s  pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to more than six years in prison over alleged affiliation to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

On Friday, the 2nd High Penal Court in Turkey’s eastern province of Van handed down a six-year-and-three-month jail term to Lezgin Botan.

Jail terms with similar lengths were also given to former HDP legislator Selami Ozyasar and two members from a teachers’ union.

They were convicted of being members of the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), which is said to be linked to the PKK.

MPs on hunger strike

Meanwhile, four HDP lawmakers have gone on hunger strike in a show of protest against a curfew imposed in the southeastern city of Nusaybin, situated 792 kilometers (492 miles) east of the capital, Ankara.

Turkish security officials placed Nusaybin under curfew on November 13, and military operations continue against PKK fighters in the area.

There are reports that the power is out in some 70 percent of the neighborhoods in Nusaybin, and one third of the population is experiencing cuts in water supplies.

Turkey has been engaged in a large-scale military campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the PKK in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to border with Syria. Over 30 people died in the Suruc attack, which the Turkish government blamed on Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

After the bombing in Suruc, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposedly reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

 

The two pro-Kurdish ministers who resigned from office Tuesday in Turkey’s interim government

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CİHAN photo

CİHAN photo

Two ministers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), EU Minister Ali Haydar Konca and Development Minister Müslüm Doğan, resigned Sept. 22 from their posts in an interim cabinet in a sign of growing tension over the ongoing conflict between Turkey’s security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The HDP announced the resignations of Konca and Doğan, both from the HDP and members of an interim cabinet steering the country to the snap parliamentary election, in a brief statement. The HDP statement was released less than an hour after a cabinet meeting chaired by AKP leader and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu earlier that day during which the two ministers presented their resignations.

“The Palace [President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] and the AKP, which he instructs, facilitated a war and coup mentality against the June 7 election results starting June 8,” Konca said in a joint press conference with Doğan after the announcement of their resignations.

Konca blamed both Erdoğan and the AKP for embracing “a war concept” and abandoning the resolution process aimed at ending a three-decade conflict between the security forces and the PKK, while citing curfews in several southeastern provinces as signs of “a coup-like governance.”

“We had entertained hopes that a cabinet without the AKP is possible. We are saying clearly and sharply that it is the AKP government itself which applied war in practice and made a coup in politics. Despite all its attempts at a massacre, it is the palace and the AKP itself that is experiencing the greatest fear. But we say to all of our peoples that despite all the facts we listed, there is no need for pessimism, and we state once more that we have no other option than getting rid of the AKP,” Konca said.

TURKEY Opening a criminal investigation against the leader of the pro-Kurdish party

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arton114616-480x349Istanbul, July 30, 2015 (AFP) – Turkish judicial authorities opened an investigation Thursday against the pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas for “disturbing public order” and “incitement to violence,” said the government agency Anatolia.

The charges against Mr Demirtas date back to October 2014, but the opening of this investigation comes amid offensive of the Islamic-conservative power against Kurdish rebels. If it was found, Mr. Demirtas could face up to 24 years in prison, according to Anatolia.

Mr. Demirtas heads the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), considered one of the big winners of the parliamentary elections of June 7 With 13% of the vote and 80 elected, he has partly prevented the Islamic-conservative ruling party to retain an absolute majority in Parliament.

Since then, Mr. Demirtas is a favorite target of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused of supporting “terrorism”. According to the Anatolia news agency, the prosecutor of Diyarbakir (south-east) launched proceedings against the HDP leader for his alleged role in the violence that occurred in October 2014.

Demonstrations, which the HDP had called, were held throughout the country to protest against the lack of support of the Turkish power in the Syrian Kurds threatened by the fighters of the Islamic State Group (EI). At least 35 people, including two policemen, were killed in the protests.

In a Thursday interview with AFP, Mr Demirtas accused Erdogan of pursuing a policy of “showing off” by claiming now fight against EI, to please the West. He also insisted that “the HDP is not the political wing of the PKK,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which multiplies the guerrilla operations against the security forces.

According to the HDP, power seeking to destabilize the country to create a Legitimist reflex in case of possible early elections.

Friday, July 31, 2015,
Ara © armenews.com

Pro-Kurdish rallies against Erdogan hit European capitals following Turkish bombing raids

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55b4b7b1c461889e568b4584Hundreds of pro-Kurdish protesters have taken to the streets in the capitals of Europe’s three largest economies, rallying against Turkish airstrikes targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq and Syria. Report RT

Protesters in Germany, France and the UK rallied on Saturday against the Turkish government, whose airstrikes on Kurdish Peshmerga militia positions in northern Iraq broke a truce that had lasted since 2013.

In Great Britain, a pro-Kurdish rally blocked BBC headquarters in London, during a march that started at Downing Street.  Protestors were angry with the Turkish government in a show of solidarity with the victims of the Suruc massacre.

The protesters carried banners “Turkish government funds ISIS,” “Mass action to defeat ISIS,” “Down with fascism in Turkey,” “Erdogan [Turkish PM], blood on your hands” “No to terror! No to imperialism,” and chanted “BBC, shame on you!” and “We want justice!”

Many protesters held photos bearing victims’s names in the terror act in Turkey’s Suruc last Monday. Others carried red flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Only a handful of police officers were present, symbolically protecting the entrance to BBC headquarters. The nature of the protest was markedly peaceful.

Hundreds of pro-Kurdish protesters rallied in the German capital on Saturday to remember the Suruc massacre victims and express support for the Turkish Kurds. The demonstrators carried portraits of Suruc victims, red and green flags of the PKK, flags of the unrecognized Kurdistan state and chanted songs in Kurdish.

The police presence during the march in Berlin was much heavier than in the British capital. German law enforcement officers were dressed in riot gear, although they carried the helmets in their hands or attached to their belts.

In London, speakers addressed the protesting crowd mostly in English, while at the Berlin rally Kurdish was mostly heard over the loudspeakers. However,  banners carried by protesters were almost all in German.

The pro-Kurdish rally in France was probably the largest, with around 2,000 protesters gathering in the streets of Paris to rally against the recent Turkish airstrikes targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in northern Iraq.

Young activists in red T-shirts carried portraits of Suruc victims and chanted “Erdogan assassin.”

Last Monday, a suicide bomber, a 20-year-old Kurdish national, killed 32 youth activists in the town of Suruc. All the victims were Kurds and Islamic State claimed responsibility for the atrocity.

The terror attack caused a new eruption of violence in Turkey. The Kurds have accused the Turkish authorities of a laissez-faire approach towards Islamic State.

A series of terror acts targeting Turkish police, carried out by Kurdish activists this week, claimed the lives of two Turkish law enforcers and wounded seven.

In return, Ankara began bombing positions of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia in northern Iraq on Friday evening.

The Kurdistan Workers Party announced on its website that after the airstrikes and ground military attacks against the Peshmerga, who are fighting Islamic State on the Syrian-Turkish border, the truce with Turkey has “no meaning anymore.”

Dozens injured in Turkish election protests against pro-Kurdish poll rally

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Police fire tear gas and water cannon to disperse nationalists demonstrating against pro-Kurdish poll rally.

Turkish nationalists clash with riot police during an election rally by the opposition HDP in Erzurum [AFP]

Turkish nationalists clash with riot police during an election rally by the opposition HDP in Erzurum [AFP]

Dozens of people have been injured in eastern Turkey, local officials say, after police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse nationalists protesting against an election rally by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).

Thursday’s clashes in the northeastern city of Erzurum were the latest in a string of incidents in the run-up to Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in which the HDP is trying to clear a 10 percent threshold for entering parliament as a party under proportional representation.

The unrest erupted a day after unidentified men opened fire on a HDP campaign bus in Kurdish-majority eastern Bingol province, killing the driver.

The governor’s office for Bingol said an investigation into the shooting had been launched.

Around 1,000 Turkish nationalists stormed the rally in the main square of Erzurum, an area seen as a bastion for Turkish nationalists.

About 2,000 HDP supporters had gathered to hear Selahattin Demirtas, the party leader, speak at the rally.

His appearance had been seen as a bold statement in a region where his party is far from popular, as it tries to win votes from outside its southeastern Kurdish-majority heartland.

Should the HDP pass the 10 percent threshold, it would become more difficult for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reach his goal of changing the constitution to boost presidential powers.

Private NTV television showed the demonstrators breaking through police barricades, before security forces responded with tear gas and water cannon.

The demonstrators, mostly young people, waved Turkish flags and chanted slogans such as “This is Erzurum, there is no way out from here” and “God is greatest”.

A minibus driver suffered severe burns when his vehicle, covered with HDP flags, was set on fire, the Dogan news agency said.

Security forces thanked

Ahmet Altiparmak, Erzurum’s governor, said in a statement quoted by Turkish media that 38 people had been wounded, including 11 police, 17 HDP supporters and 10 protesters.

But he also thanked the security forces and public for showing sensitivity so that the situation did not get out of hand.

The injuries were said to be not serious.

Demirtas went on with the rally and urged caution, saying: “There are only three days left. We will continue to work with patience, without allowing provocations.”

The HDP has long been accused by Turkish nationalists of being linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long armed insurgency in the southeast for Kurdish autonomy.

In May, two blasts targeting HDP’s headquarters in the southern cities of Adana and Mersin injured several people.

Source: aljazeera.com

Turkey: Simultaneous explosions at pro-Kurdish party HQs

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12siCasualties have been reported after several explosions hit 2 leftwing pro-Kurdish party HQs in Turkey.
The blasts in the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area in south Turkey, went off simultaneously, Hurriyet daily reported.
According to preliminary reports, six people were injured by the Adana blast, Reuters said. No immediate casualty report from Mersin was available.

 


The attack targeted two local headquarters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which currently hold 29 seats in Turkey’s 550-seat parliament.
The explosions were reported 10 minutes apart, the party said.

The party said its Adana branch was hit by an explosion in a storage room while in the Mersin branch a flower bouquet delivered on the previous day turned out to be a bomb.
HDP in just one month endured no fewer than 56 attacks across Turkey, although only two of them involved use of weapons, according to Dicle News Agency.

The party is a relative newcomer in Turkish politics, having been founded in 2012 as a political wing for a union of several left-wing groups. Those include proponents of women and gay rights, secularists, anti-capitalists and environmentalists of Gezi Park protest renown.