"Those demands include Kurdish language education in schools, release of political prisoners and an end to military operations against Kurds; and removal of the threshold of 10% of the national vote for political parties to enter parliament. "We will not respond [with violence] even if tanks come to crush us," Mr. Demirtas said.A spokesman for the government said it would respond to the call until Thursday, but with elections set for June 12, it appears unlikely to compromise on an issue that is neuralgic to many Turkish voters, analysts said. Turkish TV channels were filled with discussions of the proposed protests Thursday evening, with some commentators asking whether Turkey would now be drawn into the circle of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya." —Marc Champion and Erkan Oz, Wall Street Journal
By
MARC CHAMPION And
ERKAN OZ
Turkey's main ethnic Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party indicated that it wanted to spread the pro-democracy ferment roiling the Middle East to Eastern Turkey, the scene of a nearly 30-year-old conflict in which tens of thousands have died.
At a televised news conference in the regional capital Dyarbikir Wednesday, party leader Selahattin Demirtas said people had run out of patience with "stalling" by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government over initiatives to resolve the Kurdish question politically, and would follow Egypt's model of civil disobedience. As of noon Thursday, he said, Kurds would begin sit-in protests in city centers and would not stop until their demands were met.
Find original WSJ article here:
WALL STREET JOURNAL MARCH 24, 2011 Turkish Kurds Call for Protest
