About 150 Kurds go on trial in Turkey
A Turkish court has started to hear the case of more than 150 Kurds, including a dozen elected mayors, on charges of membership in a political wing of the separatist Kurdish guerrilla group. Police on Monday escorted about 100 of the suspects under tight security to the court house in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast where the rebels have been fighting for autonomy since 1984.
Hundreds of supporters of a pro-Kurdish political party gathered outside the court house in support of the suspects as some European human rights activists and lawyers arrived in Diyarbakir to monitor the case. The suspects include the popular mayor of Diyarbakir, Osman Baydemir. About 20 of the suspects are at large but are being tried in absentia. (AP)
