Tens of thousands of people gathered in south-eastern Turkey Tuesday to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, amid heavy police measures over fears that radical Kurds may use the event to stir unrest in the already tense region.
The festivities went largely peacefully, but seven policemen were slightly hurt in the regional capital of Diyarbakir and the town of Silopi when they were pelted with stones, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The largest gathering was in Diyarbakir where the celebrations, marred by bloodshed in the past, drew some 120,000 people, according to police. About 3,000 policemen kept close watch over the festivities at the Fair grounds, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the city centre.
Newroz day has become a platform for Turkey's Kurdish minority to demand greater freedoms or demonstrate support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for self-rule in the south-east since 1984.
The conflict, which has claimed more than 37,000 lives, has long hampered Turkey's bid to join the European Union and continues to cast a pall on its commitment to democracy and human rights.
In an address to deputies of his Justice and Development Party, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to Kurds not to follow the PKK's call.
"There are those who want to cast a pall over Newroz... They aim to turn Newroz into an cause for social tension," he said. "I ask my... people to distance themselves from those who want to sow the seeds of discord in their hearts."
Keen to boost its image in EU eyes, Turkish police in recent years have often tolerated open displays of support for the PKK - blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States - and its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
During Tuesday's festivities here, participants brandished giant posters of Ocalan and the PKK, as well as placards that read: "There is still a chance for peace".
Newroz marks the awakening of nature at the March 21 equinox. It is also celebrated in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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