VIDEO: Police Arrest Dozens Of Kurdish Protesters

Five protesters and two police officers were hurt in the illegal protests in towns across Turkey`s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Police clashed with thousands of Kurdish protesters and arrested 86 of them as they demonstrated in southeastern Turkey on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the capture of separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan.

At least eight protesters and 17 police officers were hurt in the illegal protests in towns across Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, according to local hospitals.

Protesters in Diyarbakir, the region's largest city, threw rocks at armoured police vehicles and police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 2,500 people that had gathered outside the headquarters of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the only legal Kurdish political grouping.

Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir and lawmaker Aysel Tugluk, both DTP members, were present at the demonstration but police barred them from addressing the crowd.

Smaller protests were staged in towns across the southeast. In Sirnak, protesters threw fire bombs at police, and authorities in Semdinli near the Iraqi border set up roadblocks to prevent demonstrations, witnesses said.

Ocalan, who founded the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1978, was apprehended on Feb. 15, 1999, while fleeing the Greek Embassy in Nairobi after a year-long manhunt. He was sentenced to death later that year for treason, and his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002.

The PKK launched a separatist campaign against the Turkish state in 1984 in which 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died. The U.S. and European Union call the PKK a terrorist group.

Ocalan, 61, is in solitary confinement in an island jail off Istanbul. He has dropped his call for an independent Kurdish homeland and now calls for a confederation with some political autonomy for Kurds.

The DTP, the first pro-Kurdish party to enter parliament in more than a decade, faces a court ban for alleged ties to the PKK. The party advocates a negotiated settlement with the PKK and an amnesty for some of its leaders.

The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, has criticised the court case against the DTP, arguing Kurds should have political representation in parliament. Turkey has pledged to boost rights for its estimated 15 million Kurds, or 20 percent of the population, as part of its bid to join the EU.

More in the VIDEO: Turkish police break up Kurd rally