The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Turkey says authorities supporters are attributing the PKK for the assault while adversaries attribute Turkish nationalists and talk of a “planned assassination”.
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Thousands of people gathered in Turkey’s southeast province of Diyarbakir on Sunday for the funeral of a prominent Kurdish lawyer who was shot dead yesterday.
But Selahattin Demirtaş, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP), cast doubt on whether those responsible would be exposed.
“Our scepticism is fair as so many similar sufferings have taken place on our land in the past”, he said at the funeral.
“We condemn the killing of Taher Elci and we offer our honest condolences to his family, relatives and friends”, the statement read. If it was the latter, he said, the target was clear.
“It’s an attack on peace and harmony in Turkey”.
Elci, 49, the president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, was killed in Diyarbakir’s Sur district shortly after speaking at a press briefing.
“This event demonstrates how Turkey is right in its decision in the struggle against terrorism”, he said.
The HDP said Elci had been targeted by the ruling AK party and its media and it called for political parties, civil society and professional groups to “raise their voices” in protest.
Funerals also took place of two policemen killed in the attack in the city of Diyarbakir, the centre of unrest in the mostly Kurdish region.
“The moment the statement ended, the crowd was sprayed with bullets”, a local HDP party official, Omer Tastan, told Reuters.
Police surveillance camera footage released on Saturday showed policemen being shot at from inside a cab, falling onto the ground before the passengers ran on.
“A single bullet struck Elci in the head”, he said, adding that 11 people had also been wounded in the incident.
Mourners follow vehicle transporting coffin of Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci on Sunday.
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After saying the separatist PKK shouldn’t be thought of as a terrorist organisation, had formerly been detained and received death threats.
