(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannon yesterday to disperse Kurds demonstrating in support of Kurdish refugees fleeing a jihadist offensive across the border in Syria.
Witnesses said the hundreds of young demonstrators fought back by hurling rocks and setting up barricades on the road leading to a nearby border crossing.
"We've come to support our brothers in Syria under attack by Daesh," Turkish Kurdish demonstrator Mehmet Eminakma said, referring to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
He said that Turkish authorities were blocking young Syrian Kurds who had accompanied their families to safety inside Turkey from returning to the battlefront.
The security forces forced demonstrators away from a barbed wire border fence that stands just 5km from the town of Ain Al Arab, where Kurdish fighters are confronting the jihadists.
After the clashes, security forces closed most of the eight crossing points in the area, including one used by Kurdish fighters heading to Syria. Only two posts remain open, and the interior ministry will now register new arrivals. Turkey, which has given shelter to some 1.5 million refugees from the Syrian conflict, had been refusing to accept any more for fear of being overwhelmed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday described the refugee influx as a "major problem" while saying Turkey would continue to welcome those fleeing the IS offensive. "It comes with problems attached, we are very well aware of it, but it would be really cruel to leave their destiny in the hands of fate," Erdogan said.
"How can we sit back and watch when they are being bombed? We are embracing everyone regardless of their ethnicity, religion or sect," he said. "There are good people and bad people in every nation, but we have to fullfill our duties as humans and Muslims."
Three lawmakers from Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party travelled to Switzerland yesterday to begin a hunger strike outside the UN office in Geneva to press the international community to take action.
And in Istanbul, around 10,000 people staged a solidarity protest in Istiklal Avenue, the city's main pedestrian area, shouting anti-government and anti-IS slogans.
Erdogan said dozens of Turkish hostages held by Islamic State militants in Iraq had been freed as a result of negotiations and no ransom had been paid for their release. "A bargain for money is totally out of the question. There were only diplomatic and political negotiations. And this is a diplomatic victory," Erdogan said. Forty-six Turks abducted by IS militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were freed and returned to Turkey on Saturday.
Asked whether hostages had been released in exchange for IS militants, Erdogan said: "It doesn't matter whether there was a swap or not. The most important thing is they (the hostages) are back and reunited with their families."
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