Kurdish protesters set fire to a barricade set up to block the street as they clash with riot police in Diyarbakir on October 7, 2014.
At least 29 people have been killed in Turkey in protests over the Turkish government’s policies with regard to the ISIL Takfiri group.
Latest reports said on Thursday that the protests resumed for the fourth consecutive day in different cities across Turkey.
The latest fatalities came on Thursday evening in the province of Gaziantep, where at least four people died in clashes between pro-Kurdish protesters and the ISIL Takfiri supporters.
One individual was also killed in clashes with police in the province of Mardin.
Elsewhere, in the city of Bingol, unknown gunmen injured the city’s police chief and killed his deputy as well as two police officers.
Amnesty International reacted to the recent wave of protests and the use of violence in the country, calling on the Turkish officials to curb the tensions among Turkish riot police, protesters, and the ISIL Takfiri supporters.
“It is essential that the Turkish authorities act now to calm tensions with firm but rights-respecting policing and a commitment to investigate promptly the up to 19 deaths and scores of injuries of protesters,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s researcher on Turkey, in a statement published on Wednesday.
“Any use of force by the security forces must be strictly in line with international human rights standards, in particular the principles of necessity and proportionality.”
The pro-Kurdish demonstrators are protesting the government’s inaction with regard to the crimes the ISIL militants are committing in the Syrian border town of Kobane.
“Simmering tensions in Turkey have been brought to boiling point by the conflict in Syria. The government’s actions now will have far-reaching consequences. Calming the situation and investigating the deaths during yesterday’s bloody clashes will help bring some stability to a troubled region,” Gardner added.
On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the protests as a “sabotage” aimed at undermining a peace process between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“It’s very obvious that this game is aimed at sabotaging the peaceful environment in the east and southeast as well as the peace process and our brotherhood,” Erdogan stated.
The ISIL terror group launched its assault on Kobane three weeks ago, forcing 200,000 mainly Kurdish refugees to flee into neighboring Turkey.