One killed in clashes between protesters, soldiers in southeastern Turkey

One killed in clashes between protesters, soldiers in southeastern Turkey

DİYARBAKIR
One killed in clashes between protesters, soldiers in southeastern Turkey

DHA Photo

The governor of the southeastern province confirmed that one person had been killed as a group of villagers trying to prevent the construction of a gendarmerie facility in Diyarbakır's Lice clashed with security forces.

"One person is dead and nine others have been injured," Gov. Mustafa Cahit Kıraç told state-run Anadolu news agency. "The injured people are being treated in several hospitals. Two of them are in critical condition."

The victim was identified as 18-year-old Medeni Yıldırım.

As the group held a demonstration to halt the construction of an additional building for the patrol in the village of Kayacık, it reportedly set some tents on fire there.

The gendarmerie used tear gas against the protesters, who wanted to break into the construction site. Ambulances were directed to the site to assist the injured. Protesters threw stones at workers and also used Molotov cocktails, as the gendarmerie fired warning shots, media reports said.

BDP co-chair Gültan Kışanak and independent Van deputy Aysel Tuğluk have gone to the site to collect clear information.

Many people rushed to a nearby gendarmerie station for information.
Kıraç said some groups that wanted to prevent the ongoing process to find a solution to the Kurdish issue might emerge as the instigators. 

“Whoever is preventing this process with whatever motivation will be revealed at the end of the legal investigation," he said, calling citizens to maintain peace in the region.

The governor said an old facility there needed reconstruction.

The number of protesters stood at 200 and 50 or 60 of them clashed with the security forces, the governor had said in an earlier statement.

Cihan news agency, which had cited a death toll of two in an earlier report, also said later that only one person had been killed, while 10 others were injured.

The incidents in Lice were marked at the forums in Istanbul parks, which emerged in the aftermath the Gezi Park protests that shook the city for more than three weeks.

Participants in the forums at city parks both on the Asian and European sides of Istanbul chanted slogans today in support of the people in Lice and condemning the violence there.