site.btaClashes Erupt at Turkiye-Syria Border during Pro-Kurdish Protest

More than 1,000 pro-Kurdish demonstrators were blocked by Turkish police, who used tear gas and water cannons after protesters attempted to force their way from Turkiye into Syria through the border crossing at Nusaybin in southeastern Turkiye, AFP reported on Tuesday. Some protesters were injured.

The demonstrators gathered at the call of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party to express opposition to an operation by the Syrian army against Syrian Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria, a campaign supported by the Turkish authorities.

The protesters chanted slogans, hurled stones and shouted in Kurdish in support of Rojava, the autonomous enclave that has been under the control of Syrian Kurdish militias for nearly 12 years and which Damascus is now seeking to reclaim.

Demonstrators also gathered on the Syrian side of the border, in Qamishli.

The two co-chairs of the DEM Party, the third-largest political force in the Turkish parliament, delivered speeches before tensions escalated.

DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan said the protesters were expressing solidarity with the people of Rojava, whom he described as fighting for their dignity, identity and language, adding that the enclave represents a symbol of resistance and hope that should not be allowed to be destroyed.