What caused the clashes in Diyarbakir?
Diyarbakir remains tense after recent intra-Kurd clashes.
Soon after the bomb attack during a pre-election rally of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir, which killed several people and wounded more than 100, the chairman of a nongovernmental organization known for its Islamic ideology was assassinated. In what seemed a retaliation, three HDP partisans were killed also. At first glance, all this appeared to be a replay of yearlong clashes between the Kurdish Hezbollah movement and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but many suspect provocation from a third party.
On June 9, Diyarbakir was still celebrating the HDP’s election victory two days earlier. The tension that prevailed in the city during the election campaign had abated. But people's cheerful mood changed at 3 p.m. June 9, when six shots were heard in the Sehitlik neighborhood, disrupting the quiet that was prevailing after the boisterous celebrations the day before. The target of the assassination was Aytac Baran, who died at the hospital. Baran was the chairman of Yeni Ihya Der, a nongovernmental organization close to the Free Cause Party (Huda-Par), which is known to be affiliated with the Kurdish Hezbollah movement. The group immediately attributed political meaning to the murder.
