Police start clashes over YPG/YPJ flags at Izmir May Day

09:41

JINHA

İZMIR – The Aegean city of Izmir saw police violence at May Day celebrations after police seized YPG and YPJ flags.

Workers marched from two directions on Gündoğdu Square. Marchers carried multilingual signs in Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, Laz and the Anatolian dialect of Greek celebrating May 1. Women in the Peoples’ Democratic Party march came in their traditional regional clothes from the Kurdish region.

The police intervention apparently started when the marchers arrived at Gündoğdu Square. Police had set up search points around the square, where they seized workers’ YPG and YPJ flags. When the gathering crowd objected, police opened fire with tear gas and beat youth with nightsticks, wounding at least three. The incident launched ongoing clashes.

(ekip/fk/cm)