Kurdish spring festivals in Turkey turn violent

Turkish riot police take cover behind an armoured personnel carrier to protect themselves from petrol bombs and stones hurled by Kurdish protesters during clashes after the Newroz day celebrations in the southeastern Turkish town of Viransehir March 21, 2008. Protesters clashed with security forces after they celebrated Newroz in Viransehir on Friday. Newroz, which means ''new day'' in Kurdish, marks the arrival of spring and is also celebrated in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Tajikistan.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - More than 100 Kurdish demonstrators and 10 policemen were injured and more than 160 Kurds detained across southeastern Turkey on Saturday when police broke up spring festival celebrations, security sources said.

Turkish police firing water cannons, teargas and wielding batons clashed with demonstrators in the streets in the cities of Van and Siirt.

More than 60 Kurdish demonstrators and two policemen were injured in fighting in Van after security forces tried to disperse a crowd of nearly 10,000 Kurds celebrating Newroz festival and shouting slogans supporting the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Tensions are high in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast as military operations against the PKK have continued after the military launched an eight-day operation into northern Iraq to wipe out PKK camps there.

The clashes on Saturday began when police tried to break up festivities, organized by the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). Police said the celebrations were unauthorized.

Turkey's Kurds have long complained of discrimination, and DTP leaders want public schools in Turkey's southeast to offer education in the Kurdish language, which is unrelated to Turkish.

In Siirt, 32 demonstrators and eight police were injured in more violence after police tried to disperse a group of 3,000 people with teargas and water cannon.

In Hakkari, near Turkey's border with Iraq, clashes also erupted between about 2,000 revelers and police near the city's government building.

More than 100 Kurdish demonstrators were detained in the province of Sanliurfa, near Turkey's border with Syria, for participating in another unauthorized Newroz celebration.

Saturday's Newroz clashes were punctuated by the separate arrests of 16 people in eastern Anatolia for belonging to the PKK.

Newroz, Nevruz in Turkish, is also celebrated in Iran, northern Iraq and central Asia as the beginning of spring.

It is often a flashpoint for clashes between Turkish security forces and supporters of the PKK, which took up arms in 1984 to carve out a Kurdish ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Some 40,000 people have died in violence between the PKK and Turkey's military since then.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan)