Turkish Police use Tear Gas on Kurds during PM's Tour

By Soch Mel

Turkish police used tear gas and water cannon to get rid of thousands of Kurdish Protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His tour has been generating protest in the Southeast Region of Turkey where there is a predominately higher concentration of Kurds than Turks. The PM is hoping to drum up more support for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of upcoming local elections that will occur all over the country. The southeast part of Turkey is largely controlled by the Kurdish Nationalist Democratic Society party (DTP) though the AKP performed strongly in the July 2007 general election

quite note, the article says the southwest part of Turkey is strongly Kurdish even though they live in the southeast. I think it was a simple geographically mistake but maybe there are Kurds there too?

The country's public Prosecutor wants to shut down the Kurdish Party charging them with separatist type actions that could divide Turkey up, have Kurdish-self rule, etc. If this were to be done, eight DTP ministers would be expelled from the government. The DTP has connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is a separatist faction with rebels based in Northern Iraq who have been fighting for self-rule in Turkey.

Erdogan's own party narrowly avoided being shut down by the constitutional court, earlier this year, although the AKP was convicted of violating Turkey's secular constitution.

This problem seems to be unsettling in that the government wants to shut down another political party. They almost shut down the PM's own party once. I question what sort of democracy does Turkey have, but at the same time it is more fair and just than other types of government seen around the world. But I understand why Turkey does not want part of their country to break of and form another country. At the same time I understand why the Kurds want a homeland and can see why sometimes so members of this community would choose a more aggressive path. Hopefully, more peaceful actions and talk will be taken place minus tear gas. Water cannon would be okay if the weather is really hot and the pressure is comfortable. JK, I'm not serious about the water cannon idea.