Weekend of underreported Kurdish protests in Turkey (14 images)
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As a swimming race took place across the Bosphorus and urban music from a graffiti festival pounded on nearby, over 300 people protested about a protest in Istanbul’s central Galatasary square on 15 July. With almost no reports from a weekend of repressed Kurdish demonstrations - despite a number of journalists being present - Italian photographer MariaTeresa Sette provides a glimpse into the local frustrations of a minority
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Organised by the peace and democracy party (BDP), the main Kurdish political organisation, Sunday’s event was a protest about an earlier protest in the unofficial capital of Turkey’s Kurdish south-east. All of these pictures were taken along the main Istiklaal street (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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In Diyarbakir, members of parliament from the party were caught up in the violence as protesters threw stones and riot police used pepper spray and water cannons on 14 July (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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The initial rally allegedly called for the release of jailed Kurdistan workers party (PKK) militant leader Abdullah Ocalan; the organisation has been outlawed (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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Almost 400 officials from the BDP party are in prison; the party won 36 seats in 2011’s national parliamentary elections (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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The 15 July protest in the general area of Taksim was co-organised with the labour party (EMEP), Turkish communist party (TKP) and socialist party (ESP) (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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Asiye Kolcak (not pictured), co-chairwoman of the BDP, declared that the party was just using its legitimate rights (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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‘Countries whose governments do not allow the opposition parties work are ruled by dictators,' said Kolcak. 'What happened in Diyarbakir did not compromise with any codes or ethical conducts of a country which calls itself democratic’ (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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22-year-old student Berdan (not pictured) admits he is concerned to be here. ‘Look around, the police have surrounded us,' he says. 'They are not allowing us to march to Taksim square. They are getting ready to clamp down on us as they did in Diyarbakir. But I don't care. I'm half-Turk and half-Kurd, I want to live in this country and I want my rights to be respected’ (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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More than 40, 000 have died since the PKK aimed to create a separate state in mainly Kurdish south-east Turkey from 1984 (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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(Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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28-year-old banker Serap (not pictured) says she is here as a member of the TKP, and as a Turkish citizen campaigning for the rights of the Kurdish community (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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‘What happened in Diyarbakir shows that the arrogance of the government is getting worse and worse,' says Serap (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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'We have to stop them before it's too late’ (Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)
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(Image: © MariaTeresa Sette/ mariteresa.wordpress.com/)