Turkish police clashed with pro-Kurdish protesters on Tuesday at the Turkey-Syria border after the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) mobilized supporters in the southeastern town of Nusaybin to protest a Syrian government offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Agence France-Presse reporter said.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to stop demonstrators from moving toward the border and attempting to cross into Syria, while protesters threw rocks, according to the AFP reporter.
The protest took place near Nusaybin, in Mardin province, across from the Syrian city of Qamishli, a key hub for the Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria.
The DEM Party, the third-largest group in Turkey’s parliament and the country’s main pro-Kurdish party, had called for the rally amid growing anger among Turkey’s Kurds over Damascus’s push into areas long held by the SDF. The party also announced it would hold its weekly parliamentary group meeting at the Nusaybin-Qamishli border as part of the protest.
Syrian forces launched the offensive nearly two weeks ago, expanding over recent days into territory the SDF has controlled for more than a decade. Ankara, a key supporter of Syria’s transitional government, has described the advance as a fight against what it calls terrorism.
The SDF has been the main US partner in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. Turkey considers the SDF an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group that has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
With reporting by Agence France-Presse