JINHA

NEWS CENTER – Turkish police attacked a funeral for a YPG fighter yesterday in the Kurdish city of Yüksekova, shooting a 14-year-old child in the head with a tear gas canister.

Funerals took place yesterday in several provinces of Turkey yesterday for YPG fighters who lost their lives fighting Daesh in Rojava Kurdistan, buried yesterday. Police shot a 14-year-old boy in the head with a tear gas canister after the massive ceremony for MazlumAltekin in the city of Yüksekova.

As thousands carried the body of MazlumAltekin over the Şakitan Bridge for his funeral yesterday, police blocked off several roads with armored vehicles. The crowd responded by staging a sit-down protest outside a nearby mosque. Carrying posters of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and YPG fighter Altekin, the funeral convoy chanted slogans in praise of martyrs. Despite the tensions, the march and funeral ceremony concluded peacefully.

That was when police attacked young protestors, who had set up barricades in the town, with tear gas, rubber bullets and pressurized water.Special teams of police were dispatched to the neighborhood with heavy deadly weapons, but did not open fire with live ammunition (as occurred in Yüksekova several weeks ago). As tear gas permeated the neighborhood, local shopkeepers closed their shutters.

A 14 year-old child was shot in the head with a teargas canister during the attack. The child was first sent to a hospital within the city, but was then transferred to a hospital in the nearby city of Van for treatment.

(nt/cm)