Kurdish protesters clash with police in Southeast Turkey

Police have clashed with stone-throwing Kurdish demonstrators protesting the recent arrest of 23 Kurds on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, according to news reports.

The private Doğan news agency says clashes broke out Saturday in the mainly Kurdish towns of Yüksekova and Cizre, near the border with Iraq. There were no immediate reports of any arrests or injury, AP reported.

The 23 – charged late Friday – were among 31 people detained in a nationwide crackdown on people suspected of links to the PKK.

Those charged include seven mayors.

Hundreds of Kurds in the city of Diyarbakır are also staging a sit-in demonstration to denounce the arrests.

The PKK has been fighting the Turkish military in the country’s Southeast since 1984.

/Huriyyet Daily News/