Turkish Opposition leader calls for peace in Diyarbakir, as new cycle of violence kills three

DIYARBAKIR (K24) - The head of the main Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during a visit to the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir (Amed) on Wednesday that the killing of the senior lawyer Tahir Elci must not remain an unsolved murder.

After paying a condolence visit to Elci's widow, Turkan Elci and other family members of the late human rights lawyer in their home, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu went to the Diyarbakir Bar Association and gave a press conference there. Without mentioning their name, Kilicdaroglu called on the PKK-affiliated Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDGH) members "to respect Tahir Elci's will and stop building barricades in residential areas" that have caused Turkish authorities impose curfews in several Kurdish towns, including Farqin and Sur in Diyarbakir.

Kilicdaroglu stated, "The place to solve the [Kurdish] problem is the [Turkish] parliament." He said his party has proposed twenty-four motions to set up a parliamentary investigation committee to solve unsolved murders committed by paramilitary state forces, notably the JITEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism) in the 1990s. But the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) blocked the motions, he added. Kilicdaroglu promised that CHP will not let Tahir Elci's case remain unsolved.

The Turkish opposition leader also criticised his country for being a place "where people are killed for their opinions."

Meanwhile, hours after CHP leader's call for calm, an unknown, allegedly armed young woman who attacked police was shot dead in Dagkapi Square in central Diyarbakir.

Minutes after that incident, a K24 reporter embedded in Diyarbakir said a 13-years-old boy was killed by fire from unknown assailants, close to the square. He said at least seven people have been arrested there by the government forces. According to the pro-PKK Kurdish Firat News Agency, the two were killed when the police fired on a crowd who gathered to protest Wednesday's decision by the Sur district of the city to impose an indefinite curfew in six neighbourhoods.

Intermittent sounds of clashes and at least one bomb explosion in the afternoon thought to be from a stun grenade could be heard by the K24 reporter close to the neighbourhoods under curfew in the Sur district.

Elsewhere in Turkey, in Mardin province, a bomb planted on Mardin-Midyat road killed one Turkish soldier and wounded nine others, including three civilians as a military vehicle was passing in the area.

(Hesen Kako and Siddiq Eren contributed to this report from Diyarbakir)