JINHA

AMED – When Turkish security forces blockaded the Sur district of the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakır, clashes spread across the city. Today, residents are once again attempting to march to Sur to break the siege on the district.

Yesterday, the governor of the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakır, Turkey declared a 24-hour indefinite curfew in the Sur district of the city. As police quickly blockaded neighborhoods in Sur, thousands of Diyarbakır residents marched into the district, attempting to stop the attacks. The people overcame security forces’ barricades in their effort to reach the people of Sur. Inside Sur, police shot 80-year-old Makbule Ermiş, who had left her home to search for her son. Police announced that they would shoot anyone who had not abandoned the district by 6 p.m., but residents resisted the curfew.

The city became a war zone as the day wore on, with police arresting an unidentified foreign journalist and deploying large volumes of tear gas in the Ofis neighborhood as a crowd of thousands. “Everywhere is Sur, everywhere resistance,” chanted the crowds as clashes intensified on Ekinciler Ave. As the demonstrators set up barricades on the avenue, police shot into the crowd with live ammunition.

Clashes migrated to the nearby Koşuyolu Park, adjacent to the headquarters of the Kurdish activist organization Democratic Society Congress (DTK), as neighborhood residents held a constant noise demonstration from their balconies in support of the youth fighting with police. Residents also took to the streets in the Bağlar, Kayapınar and Seyrantepe areas of the city. By the day’s end, police had wounded seven residents, three seriously.

Today, the Sur district remains under police blockade. In the Hasırlı and Fatihpaşa neighborhoods, residents kept up an all-night noise demonstration to protest the blockade. Activists and Parliamentary representatives from across the city are gathering for a second day at the Dağkapı Square that marks the entrance to Sur. They hope to march into Sur to break the blockade.

The Democratic Regions Party (DBP) has called on all residents of Diyarbakır to join the march to break the barricade and curfew in the Sur district.

(ekip/fk/