3 killed, 7 injured in clashes in southeastern Turkey

At least three people were reportedly killed in clashes overnight between Turkish security forces and Kurdish activists in the southeastern Turkish district of Yuksekova, according to activist and local media reports.

Abdullah Zeydan, pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) deputy for Hakkari province, told Today's Zaman that in addition to the three people who were killed, seven others were injured in clashes between police and protesters following the declaration of a curfew on Wednesday evening.

According to Zeydan, clashes broke out in the Yuksekova neighbourhoods of Kisla, Orman and Mezarlik shortly after the beginning of the 11:30pm (21:30 GMT) curfew.

He also claimed that ambulances had been prevented from reaching the scene, or taking the wounded to hospital.

Activists on social media circulated footage claiming to show Turkish police firing on civilians carrying a wounded protester away:

Yuksekova is one of several Kurdish-majority districts in southeastern Turkey to declare “self-governance” in opposition to the central Justice and Development Party (AKP) ruled government.

In response, there have been numerous arrests of local politicians. On Sunday, three district co-mayors from Diyarbakir province, and two co-mayors from Hakkari province were among those arrested on charges of "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state".

On Thursday, the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), a transnational affiliate body to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), released a statement calling on Kurds in Turkey to resist attacks by the security forces.

"The Kurdish people mean neither to divide Turkey, nor to wage a war against police and military forces. It is the AKP government itself that attacks people with tanks, heavy weapons and artillery fires," it stated.

"The democratic resistance and self-rule will of our people will definitively triumph while the fascist, authoritarian and hegemonic colonialism will lose.”

Unrest has mounted in Turkey’s southeast ever since a bombing in the border town of Suruc, allegedly by the Islamic State (IS), killed 33 pro-Kurdish socialist activists who were enroute to the besieged Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane.

The PKK have killed at least 56 Turkish security officials since the attack which the group explicitly blamed on the Turkish state.

The government has launched airstrikes against PKK positions in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq killing around 800 of PKK fighters and Kurdish civilians, according to Anadolu Agency.