Turkish Police Fire Tear Gas At Pro-Kurdish Party Procession - Reports

The police of the Turkish southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Monday used tear gas and water cannons against members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who held a march in memory of a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Zulkuf Gezen, local media reported

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2019) The police of the Turkish southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Monday used tear gas and water cannons against members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who held a march in memory of a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Zulkuf Gezen, local media reported.

Gezen committed suicide late Sunday in Tekirdag prison, where he was serving a life sentence on charges of committing a 2007 terrorist attack in which one police officer was killed and two more were injured. His body was transferred from Istanbul to Diyarbakir and buried in the local cemetery.

The DHA news agency reported that a group of HDP members, including its co-chairman, decided to visit the cemetery.

The police met the group at the entrance to the cemetery and warned that group visits were not allowed, inviting them to disperse.

In response, participants of the march started to throw stones at police officers. Police used tear gas and water cannons, and protesters had to leave the cemetery.

The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara agreed on a ceasefire in 2013, but it collapsed just two years later after a number of terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.

Turkish security forces carry out regular anti-PKK raids across the country and conduct airstrikes against the group in northern Iraq.