Pro-Kurdish
lawyer Tahir Elci shot dead in Turkey
After
Tahir Elci was killed, a gun battle erupted between police and
unidentified gunmen - Mark Lowen reports.
A
prominent pro-Kurdish lawyer and rights activist has been shot dead
in Diyarbakir, south-eastern Turkey.
28-11-2015
Tahir Elci was
killed in a gun battle between police and unidentified gunmen. Two
police officers also died.
He had been making a
statement calling for an end to violence between the Turkish state
and the Kurdish rebel group the PKK when he was shot dead.
Police in Istanbul
fired water cannon to disperse crowds demonstrating against Mr Elci's
death.
A curfew has now
been imposed in the neighbourhood where Mr Elci was shot.
Mr Elci, who was
head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, had previously been detained
and received death threats after saying the separatist PKK should not
be regarded as a terrorist organisation.
In July violence
resumed in the conflict between the army and the PKK after a
ceasefire collapsed. Dozens have been killed in violent clashes
since.
Mr Elci had been
calling on both sides to pull back from the conflict
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Media captionRiot
police deployed water cannon and tear gas to drive back protesters
"We do not want
guns, clashes and operations here", Mr Elci was saying before
being shot.
"The moment the
statement ended, the crowd was sprayed with bullets," a local
official from the pro-Kurdish HDP party, Omer Tastan, told Reuters.
The US embassy in
Ankara said it was "shocked" at Mr Elci's "tragic
death", calling him a "a courageous defender of human
rights".
The incident sparked
instant protests in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir.
A crowd on
Istanbul's central Istiklal Street chanted "We are all Tahir
Elci" and "You can't kill us all," accusing the state
of complicity in the attack.
Government
supporters said Mr Elci was killed in a PKK attack while opponents
blamed Turkish nationalists, talking of a "planned
assassination", says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Turkey.
"The state has
to give an account," shouted protestors in Istanbul on Saturday
A Turkish government
official said in a written statement: "We are determined to shed
light on today's fatal incident in Diyarbakir. An official
investigation has been launched and we have assigned four inspectors
to this case.
"At this time,
we believe that Mr Elci may have been caught in the crossfire but we
aren't ruling out the possibility that a third party directly
targeted him."
President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said the incident justified the state's "fight
against terrorism".
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