Turkey: Kurdish protests over wall at Syria border
- 11 years ago
Protests against Turkish plans to build a wall along the Syrian border have erupted into violent clashes with police.
In the border towns of Nusaybin and Cizre, demonstrators set off firecrackers and threw Molotov cocktails.
Riot police deployed tear gas and fired live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The violence follows a mass rally by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party against the planned partition. Some 5,000 people attended.
The Turkish government says the wall is being built to improve security and reduce smuggling.
Critics of the plan, however, are angry at what they see as a divisive measure intended to separate Kurds in Turkey from those in Syria. Many Kurdish families in the area have relatives on both sides of the border.
In the border towns of Nusaybin and Cizre, demonstrators set off firecrackers and threw Molotov cocktails.
Riot police deployed tear gas and fired live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The violence follows a mass rally by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party against the planned partition. Some 5,000 people attended.
The Turkish government says the wall is being built to improve security and reduce smuggling.
Critics of the plan, however, are angry at what they see as a divisive measure intended to separate Kurds in Turkey from those in Syria. Many Kurdish families in the area have relatives on both sides of the border.