JINHA

COLEMERG – Last night, people in the Kurdish town of Yüksekova, Turkey were at the barricades again last night as police violently attempted to enter their neighborhoods.

After resisting police attacks overnight on Thursday night, when the provincial governor declared a curfew, the people of Yüksekova were again at the barricades last night.
On Thursday, police special operations teams deployed heavy weaponry and explosives in an attempt to break the popular resistance in the town, but thousands took to the streets in defiance of the ban. The governor had to declare the curfew lifted yesterday morning.

Yesterday evening, state security forces again deployed explosives in an effort to enter the Cumhuriyet neighborhood, leading the neighborhood residents to resist from their barricades once again. Special operations teams launched grenades at some barricades while residents chanted slogans and held noise demonstrations to protest the attacks.
Police made it past the first barricade in the Cumhuriyet neighborhood using grenades, but the neighborhood youth assembled at the local House of the People to stone the police armored vehicles. Meanwhile, police blockaded the neighborhoods of Kani Heyder, Sait Boru and Güngör, launching hundreds of tear gas canisters into the neighborhoods and opening fire with live ammunition.

Police eventually pulled back from Güngör neighborhood yesterday evening, to the sounds of youth chanting slogans. Clashes continued in other neighborhoods.

(dc/cm)