Turkish police break up Kurd rally

Police in riot gear used water cannon and batons against marchers in the city of Batman.

This demonstration by Kurds in the city of Batman is one of many expected across Turkey over the weekend to mark the anniversary of the arrest of Kurdish Workers' Party leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Police moved in with batons and water cannon to break up the protest.

They said it was illegal because of pro-Ocalan chants from the marchers.

Several people have been injured in the clashes that erupted.

More than a dozen have been arrested, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Security has been tightened in many towns and cities in south-eastern Turkey.

Ocalan was arrested in Kenya in 1999 and is now held in a compound at a remote island jail where he is serving a life sentence.

The Kurdish Workers' Party is linked to some 40, 000 deaths since it launched an armed struggle to carve out an ethnic Kurdish homeland in south-east Turkey.

Turkey considers it a terrorist organisation.

Paul Chapman, Reuters