Two killed during protests against security post as tension escalates in southeast Turkey

At least two protesters died June 7 from gunshot wounds sustained during intense clashes with soldiers in Diyarbakır’s Lice district, where demonstrations against the construction of a gendarmerie posts have been continuing for nearly two weeks.

Ramazan Baran, 24, and Abdulbaki Akdemir, 50, died after being transferred to the hospitals following a gendarmerie attack on a road block, officials and medics confirmed. Three people, including two soldiers, were also hospitalized.

Witnesses said Turkish soldiers fired live bullets during the clashes, while demonstrators hurled stones and fireworks at security forces. The Turkish army claimed in a statement that protesters also opened fire, while Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Nursel Aydoğan said two other people, including a woman in her 50s, were also killed after security forces fired with live ammunition into a crowd of protesters.

Widespread protests were staged across eastern and southeastern Turkey with the support of the major Kurdish party, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) across the construction of security posts. There were also protests in the flashpoint Istanbul neighborhoods of Gazi and Okmeydanı. Late last month, police shot and killed a man attending a funeral in the latter neighborhood.

Government plans to tighten the grip of security officials in the southeast is seen as a major threat to the peace process launched in January 2013.

The incident comes as Ankara was considering new legal amendments to give new momentum to the stalled peace process. However, the government has repeatedly refused to...