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Prominent Kurdish lawyer shot dead in Turkey, Kurds protesting death water cannoned

A prominent Kurdish Lawyer and rights activist was shot in the head and killed in Turkey on Saturday.
The pro-Kurdish HDP Party called the killing of Tahir Elci a “planned assassination” and urge Kurds to protest against the Turkish state.

Witness said that Mr Elci was shot after speaking to journalists about a historic Kurdish minoret that had been destroyed.

“The moment the statement ended, the crowd was sprayed with bullets,” a local HDP party official, Omer Tastan told Reuters.

The killed lawyer was facing trial for saying that the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was not a terrorist organisation, as proscribed by the Turkish government.

Turkey’s President said that if this was an assassination, it further proved that the assassination was “an attack on peace and harmony in Turkey,” and further emphasised the need to “fight terrorism.”

Hundreds of people that too to the streets to protest against the killing, were then tear gassed and water cannoned by Turkish security forces.

Turkey’s Interior Minister, speaking at a press conference after the shooting said the Kurdish lawyer had been caught up in a gun battle between police and terrorists.

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