European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has called on Turkey to once again launch a “peace process” after a renowned Kurdish lawyer and two police officers were killed in gunfire in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Saturday.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech shortly after the incident that a policeman had also been killed during the attack in Diyarbakir.
Ankara has unleashed a new air war against PKK rebels following a wave of attacks blamed on the group, destroying hopes of fresh talks to end a conflict that has claimed 45,000 lives since 1984.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala and other officials said the assault was against police officers, and that Elci died in an ensuing clash. He vowed to catch the killers.
Addressing thousands of mourners on November 29, pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtas said Elci was the victim of a “political murder”.
“So many similar losses have taken place on our lands in the past”. “We were never able to say goodbye to them with our minds at ease thinking those responsible will be caught”.
While the pro-Kurdish rights lawyer said the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or the PKK, is not a terrorist organization, as the United States and Turkey has, he did denounce PKK violence.
Police block the crime scene for the press.
Plain-clothed police are seen shooting at two men running towards Elci, but a moment later the lawyer is seen lying face down on the ground, with a pistol next to his body. The bullet had been fired from a distance, the prosecutor said, without drawing any conclusions. It was also reported that at least one suspect was detained during the operations. Another suspect remained unidentified.
The killing is the latest sign of the precarious security situation in Turkey’s southeast after peace talks collapsed between the government and the PKK, which seeks autonomy for the country’s ethnic Kurds. Then we heard one or two gunshots from the street.
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A government official said four inspectors have been assigned to investigate the case, adding that the government was “determined to shed light” on the attack. “As a Kurdish intellectual he was slain by the state”.
