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ISTANBUL - TDN with wire services
Tensions were high in Turkey on Tuesday, a day before the seventh anniversary of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan's capture, with Kurds demonstrating in a southeastern city and terrorists claiming responsibility for two recent bomb attacks.
More than 1,000 Kurdish demonstrators marched in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Tuesday, chanting: "Long Live Apo!" Hundreds of riot police stood on guard but most of the demonstrators dispersed peacefully after the protest.
Apo is the nickname for Öcalan, who was captured seven years ago Wednesday. It is illegal in Turkey to praise him or the PKK, which has been fighting Turkish troops for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast since 1984.
A terrorist group, meanwhile, have claimed a pair of bombings in the past week that killed one person and wounded 30 in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons organization, a hard-line group linked to the main Kurdish terror group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for Monday night's bombing in an e-mail, the Netherlands-based Fırat news agency said on its Web site.
The same group had also claimed Thursday's bomb attack on an Internet cafe in the city that killed one person and injured 15 others, including seven police officers.
The militant group said in its e-mail that it carried out the attack in response to Turkey's policies toward the Kurdish people, Fırat said.
The shadowy group has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including a blast in the Aegean resort town of Çeşme last summer that wounded 21 people.
"From now on, we will continue our actions uninterrupted" until the Turkish government changes its policies, the militant group said.
The bomb blast at the supermarket damaged a wall and shattered some windows. Police cordoned off the area and forensic teams searched for evidence under floodlights. The windows of a real estate agent's office, next door, also were smashed.
"I was sitting inside when the explosion shattered the windows," said Zikri Çetinkaya, 48, who had been in the real estate office. "I immediately ducked and waited inside. I saw the ambulances outside but I was afraid to walk to the market."
The militant group had apparently targeted police officers who frequented the Internet cafe during Thursday's attack. But the supermarket bombing during rush hour Monday apparently aimed at terrorizing the general public.
Tensions have been high in Turkey with the approach of the seventh anniversary of the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on Feb. 15.
The Istanbul bombings capped tensions in Turkey ahead of the anniversary of Öcalan's capture. On Sunday, about 600 PKK sympathizers clashed with police and set a bus on fire to protest Öcalan's solitary confinement.
Öcalan, whose outlawed group the U.S. and European Union have branded a terrorist organization, is the sole inmate on the prison island of İmrali, near Istanbul, where he is serving a life sentence for leading the war for autonomy that has killed 37,000 people.
In March 1999, an arson attack to protest Öcalan's capture killed 13 people at a popular Istanbul department store.
A hard-line Kurdish group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that wounded 15 people at an Istanbul supermarket, a Kurdish news agency reported.
The fighting tapered off after a unilateral PKK cease-fire in 1999. But there has been resurgence of violence since June 1, 2004, when the group declared an end to the cease-fire, saying Turkey had not responded in kind
Tensions were high in Turkey on Tuesday, a day before the seventh anniversary of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan's capture, with Kurds demonstrating in a southeastern city and terrorists claiming responsibility for two recent bomb attacks.
More than 1,000 Kurdish demonstrators marched in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır on Tuesday, chanting: "Long Live Apo!" Hundreds of riot police stood on guard but most of the demonstrators dispersed peacefully after the protest.
Apo is the nickname for Öcalan, who was captured seven years ago Wednesday. It is illegal in Turkey to praise him or the PKK, which has been fighting Turkish troops for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast since 1984.
A terrorist group, meanwhile, have claimed a pair of bombings in the past week that killed one person and wounded 30 in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons organization, a hard-line group linked to the main Kurdish terror group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for Monday night's bombing in an e-mail, the Netherlands-based Fırat news agency said on its Web site.
The same group had also claimed Thursday's bomb attack on an Internet cafe in the city that killed one person and injured 15 others, including seven police officers.
The militant group said in its e-mail that it carried out the attack in response to Turkey's policies toward the Kurdish people, Fırat said.
The shadowy group has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including a blast in the Aegean resort town of Çeşme last summer that wounded 21 people.
"From now on, we will continue our actions uninterrupted" until the Turkish government changes its policies, the militant group said.
The bomb blast at the supermarket damaged a wall and shattered some windows. Police cordoned off the area and forensic teams searched for evidence under floodlights. The windows of a real estate agent's office, next door, also were smashed.
"I was sitting inside when the explosion shattered the windows," said Zikri Çetinkaya, 48, who had been in the real estate office. "I immediately ducked and waited inside. I saw the ambulances outside but I was afraid to walk to the market."
The militant group had apparently targeted police officers who frequented the Internet cafe during Thursday's attack. But the supermarket bombing during rush hour Monday apparently aimed at terrorizing the general public.
Tensions have been high in Turkey with the approach of the seventh anniversary of the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on Feb. 15.
The Istanbul bombings capped tensions in Turkey ahead of the anniversary of Öcalan's capture. On Sunday, about 600 PKK sympathizers clashed with police and set a bus on fire to protest Öcalan's solitary confinement.
Öcalan, whose outlawed group the U.S. and European Union have branded a terrorist organization, is the sole inmate on the prison island of İmrali, near Istanbul, where he is serving a life sentence for leading the war for autonomy that has killed 37,000 people.
In March 1999, an arson attack to protest Öcalan's capture killed 13 people at a popular Istanbul department store.
A hard-line Kurdish group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that wounded 15 people at an Istanbul supermarket, a Kurdish news agency reported.
The fighting tapered off after a unilateral PKK cease-fire in 1999. But there has been resurgence of violence since June 1, 2004, when the group declared an end to the cease-fire, saying Turkey had not responded in kind