JINHA

NEWS CENTER –With commemorations of the 16^th anniversary of the February 15 international conspiracy to capture Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Öcalan beginning last night withovernightactions, the day began with the shutters closed at many shops in Northern Kurdistan and protests are planned across the region for the afternoon. In Istanbul, five have been arrested.

In Diyarbakir, most workplaces except bakeries and pharmacies are closed, shutters are drawn, and the buildings of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) are draped in black. Citizens will gather in front of the DBP provincial headquartersat noon to protest.In Van, daily life has stopped in the city center as well as the surrounding districts of the Serhat region. A massive noon march is planned at Feqiyê Teyran Park.

Hakkari is under heavy police patrol. The city itself as well as the surrounding rural areasare completely silent, with not just shops closed, but engines turned off across the province. The same silence reigns in Muş province, where protest actions are expected in a number of districts, with a noon march planned in the town of Bulanık. Shutters are also closed in other provinces in the area.

The streets of the city of Batman are lined with shuttered shop windows, with police already out in expectation of marches down three major thoroughfares. Mardin is totally closed down, as is the majority of Dersim. Towns and cities throughout Şırnak province are quiet and citizens are largely wearing black in protest.

In the Hezex district of Şırnak (İdil in Turkish), youths took to the streets, burning tires, setting up barricades and chanting slogans in support of Öcalan. Police attacked with armored cars and riot control vehicles, with the most intense clashes taking place on Kobanê and Cudî streets, where police frequently shot live rounds into the air in clashes that lasted into the wee hours. Surveillance devices mounted on a pole at the Belediye intersection were overturned and taken offline during the clashes.

Police used riot control vehicles and armored cars to blockade Cumhuriyet Square, Karacadağ Street and the Diyarbakır Road in Viranşehir, Urfa province. Police attacked with pressurized water and tear gas, with youths responding with rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks. Arrest counts from the late-night clashes are not yet released.

Thousands of people filled the streets with a torch-lit march in Urfa's district of Halfeti, bearing the flags of the guerrilla forces and organizations PKK, KCK, YPG, YPJ and YDG-H along with posters and signs declaring support for the PKK leader. The action ended with a singing of the revolutionary anthem "Çerxa Şoreşe" for those lost in the struggle for freedom. In the Yukarıgöklü neighborhood, hundreds of people attended another torch-lit march.

In Istanbul, police attacked a group attempting to march down Demokrasi Street in the neighborhood of Sancaktepe. In the neighborhoods of Atatürk and İnönü, police intervened with riot control vehicles, tear gas and rubber bullets, while protestors responded with fireworks, rocks and Molotov cocktails. Five people, whose identities are unknown, were arrested in the late-night clashes. They are currently being held in the Istanbul police station in Vatan.

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