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Turkish police deploy tear gas, water cannon to disperse Kurds celebrating Newroz “VIDEO”

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56edffa9c36188fa2c8b4585RT At least 10 people have been arrested after Turkish police broke up the Kurdish Newroz festivities in the town of Silopi. Officers deployed water cannon to disperse the crowd which gathered in defiance of Ankara’s ban on mass gatherings amid a crackdown on Kurdish militants.

Several hundreds of people flocked to the streets of Silopi in southeastern Sirnak province for the Newroz (the Persian New Year also celebrated by the Kurds) festivities, organized by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party despite a ban on public gatherings, local media reported.

Up to 500 people were seen on the streets when the police arrived and demanded that the crowd disperse. According to reports, police have also made a second attempt trying to convince the crowd to leave the vicinity of the municipality building.

Besides refusing to leave, a small portion of Kurds allegedly started scuffles with the officers and began throwing stones at police lines. Several dozen activists proceeded with barricading the road and burning tires, according to reports.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannon to eventually disperse the celebrating crowd, with many women and children among them. At least one policemen was injured in the standoff, while authorities managed to detain at least 10 people.

The conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish population, who demand greater autonomy, has been continuing for decades. With several failed ceasefires between the sides, Ankara has been blamed by a number of human rights groups for jeopardizing civilian lives in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

In summer 2015, Ankara launched a military operation against the Kurdish militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The violence ended a two-year truce and is still ongoing, having already resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties according to human rights NGOs.

#JusticeForKurds: RT calls on UN to probe Turkey’s alleged killing of Kurdish civilians

On March 17, RT launched a petition calling for a UNHRC-led investigation into latest claims of alleged massacre of Kurds by the Turkish military during Ankara’s crackdown in the country’s southeast. It is based on materials that an RT crew recorded as it visited Cizre in Turkey’s Sirnak province following reports of a brutal military crackdown on the civilian population in the area.

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Amnesty calls on South Korea to suspend tear gas exports to Turkey

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199419_newsdetailPolice forces use pepper spray to disperse protesters who gathered in Ankara to commemorate Berkin Elvan, 15-year-old boy, died a year after being hit by a teargas canister fired by the police during last summer’s Gezi protests, (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Ali Ünal)

An international human rights watchdog has called on South Korea to stop a planned shipment of large amounts of tear gas to Turkey, which it said abuses the use of riot control equipment during mass protests.

In a press release Amnesty International (AI) issued on its website on Monday, it said South Korea is planning to ship around 1.9 million tear gas cartridges and gas grenades to Turkey and the first delivery will take place in mid-January, citing an anonymous and credible source.

“All shipments of tear gas and other riot control equipment to Turkey must be suspended immediately or they risk fuelling further repression and abuses,” Marek Marczynski, head of Military, Security and Police at AI said, according to the release.

The human rights organization asked South Korean authorities to send a clear and urgent message that it won’t send any arms to Turkey “where abusive and arbitrary force is being used against protesters.”

“Turkey has a woeful record of misusing tear gas during demonstrations, frequently firing gas canisters directly at protesters. No responsible government should be fuelling abuses on this scale,” Marczynski was quoted as saying.

The human rights organization said that 1,898,515 “less lethal” chemical irritants — 1,509,015 tear gas cartridges ranging from four different sizes and 389,500 gas grenades — will be delivered to Turkey. While the first part of the shipment, which contains 550,000 items, is scheduled to be in Turkey in mid-January, the rest of it will be delivered by mid-May, AI said.

Amnesty cited the 2013 Gezi Park protests and May Day demonstrations in Turkey, during which riot police repeatedly used abusive and arbitrary force against peaceful protesters. It underlined that at least four demonstrators died due to the police’s use of excessive force, including two people who were hit in the head by tear gas canisters.

“Right now, no government should be supplying the Turkish authorities with the tools to crush further peaceful demonstrations. All transfers of tear gas and other riot control equipment must be suspended until the Turkish authorities can ensure such repression will not be repeated, and commit to carrying out thorough, impartial and independent investigations into past abuses by the security forces,” Marczynski said.

The way Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) handled the nationwide protests of last year drew harsh criticism from international human rights organizations as well as European Union officials. During the Gezi Park protests, which broke out at the end of May 2013, thousands were injured and some died due to police violence involving tear gas and tear gas canisters. Organizations at home and abroad accused the government of committing human rights violations on a large scale during the protests, which started because of environmentalist concerns to protect a green space in the heart of İstanbul.

During the almost one-month-long Gezi protests, which spread all across Turkey, more than 10,000 people were injured, with some losing an eye, due to the excessive use of tear gas, water cannon and plastic bullets, based on data from the Ankara-based Human Rights Association (İHD). According to the Taksim Solidarity Platform, in just the first 15 days of protests, the police had used 150,000 gas bombs.

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