Source : http://www.dozame.org/blog/index.php

March 31, Malatya - A bomb went off outside the headquarters of the Malatya police at 23:30 (11:30 pm EET). No one was reported killed or injured by the blast.

March 31, Amed (Diyarbakir) - The Amed correspondent of the Kurdish newspaper ‘Ulkede Özgur Gundem’ was nearly killed by Turkish special forces when he was reporting on riots outside the ‘Huzurevler’ police station in city of Amed. “I was the only representative of the media at the location. First I followed the clashes between police and protesters in the cross streets around the police station. A police chief shouted to me to stop and ran up to me and asked me to show my press card. I gave the card to him, he looked at it and threw it on my face. I said to him, ‘I showed it to you like a human, you should give it back to me like a human’. He reacted strongly and said, ‘There is no difference between you and [the protesters]. You will see what it means to be a journalist,’ and he went to his friends and showing me to them, pointing at me,” Özdemir said.

When the attacks against the Turkish police station by Kurdish protesters resumed, Özbaris went to a location close by to watch the events. “Masked Turkish special forces arrived at the scene on top of APC’s [Armored Personnel Carriers] and started to shoot at the protesters with sniper rifles. While I was taking pictures, a protester behind me suddenly shouted at me and said, ‘Look out ! They’re showing you as a target to the masked soldiers !’ At that instance, I could hear the masked soldiers address me, screaming ‘[Ocalan’s] bastard ! We’re going to show you what it means to take pictures ! You just wait !’ They started to scream profanities at me and the ‘[Ozgur] Gundem’ newspaper. The soldiers’s behavior provoked the Kurdish youth who once again started to march towards the police station throwing stones at the soldiers, who then strafed the demonstrators with gunfire. A couple of protesters shouted at me to move to the side and take cover because the soldiers were now targeting me also. One of them threw himself at me and shoved me to the side just as a couple of bullets hit the wall behind the spot where I had stood before the Kurdish youth saved me,” Özbaris said.

March 31, Cudi Mountains - Turkish military operations entered its third day in the Cudi mountains. There were no Turkish reports on clashes. The ‘HPG Press & Liaison Center’ (HPG-BIM) said that they would issue a statement informing the public on the results of the military operations in Cudi.

March 31, Gabar Mountains - Turkish military operations started on March 23 were still continuing in the areas of Beava, Geliye Gurdila, Gire Cosyan and Deriya Gabar on the Gabar mountains in the Sirnak province of northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey). HPG scouts reported that Turkish forces were building a permanent military base on Gire Cosyan.

March 31, Amed - Over 300 Kurdish protesters were being held inside the sports arena of the Diyarbakir Police Academy, ANF reports. The Kurdish protesters were brought before Turkish judges in groups, each consisting of 25-30 people. Five different prosecutors were reportedly interrogating the captured protesters. 56 protesters out of 75 taken before the court have been arrested until now.

March 31, Batman - Around 23:00 (11 pm EET), 30 pro-Turkish Islamic fundamentalists in the city of Batman in northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) attacked the town hall of the Batman municipality with stones shouting slogans such as “Allahu Akbar”. The fundamentalists disappeared into cross streets shortly after. The attack is believed to be in response of the anti-government protests carried out by pro-Kurdish protesters. The city of Batman is known to have a substantial Islamic fundamentalist population, even though the majority of the citizens in Batman votes for the pro-Kurdish party DTP. Batman was one of the centers of clashes between the Islamic fundamentalist Turkish Hizbullah and the Kurdish PKK in the beginning of the 90’s. The Batman municipality is run by the pro-Kurdish DTP.

March 31, Amed - All shops in the districts of ‘April 5th’, Huzurevleri, Hatboyu, Emek Street, Nukhet Coskun Aykol Street, Dortyol, Kurucesme, Alipinar and Sehitlik in the suburb of Baglar have had their shutters closed for the third day in a row in protest of the Turkish government. All shops except some grocery shops were also shut down in Ofis and Dagkapi.

March 31, Amed - The Turkish Governorship of Diyarbakir issued a statement putting the death toll of killed civilians to six after the death of three civilians on March 30. The killed civilians were Enes Ata (6), Mehmet Akbulut (18) and a 25-year-old who could not be identified.

March 31, Amed - In a press conference organized by the pro-Kurdish DTP party, the DTP co-president Ahmet Turk and the DTP Mayor of Diyarbakir metropolitan municipality Osman Baydemir called on both sides of the conflict, raging for the fourth day in the city, to stop the violence.

“It is unacceptable of security forces to fire upon the people in a democratic country. [...] We are struggling to create an environment based on peace and equality. We don’t support any action that may escalate the conflict. We expect the same attitude from the security forces,” Ahmet Turk said.

“Over 200 people have been wounded and six people have lost their lives. This may be easy to state if you just look at it as a number. But we need to feel this in our hearts, and put ourselves in the shoes of the mothers and fathers. [...] If I tell you what difficulties I have gone through [as a Mayor], then imagine what the civilians in this city has gone through. [...] We are not any longer in a position or have the tolerance to lose more of our people. [...] Let us be responsible and act with conscience,” Baydemir stated.

March 31, Yuksekova - Tanks from the Turkish armed forces moves into the city of Yuksekova. Clashes between protesters and Turkish security forces are reported from several locations in the city. The DTP Mayor of Yuksekova Salih Yildiz calls to the Turkish security forces to act responsibly.

March 31, Europe - European media outlets starts writing about the ongoing protests in northern Kurdistan. The Austrian newspaper ‘Die Presse’ writes, “The Turkish justice is helpless against the crimes of the Turkish Generals.” The Associated Press is the first US media outlet to report the conflict.

March 31, Bismil - All shops in the city pull down their shutters in protest of the killing of Kurdish civilians and use of chemical weapons against Kurdish guerrillas by Turkish security forces. Turkish security forces are put on high-alert in the city.

March 31, Batman - A 3-year-old child named Fatih Tekin is killed when Turkish security forces arbitrarily fire upon protesters in the city. Tekin was hit by a bullet while he was playing in a childrens playground at the 114th street in the district of Petrol.

March 31, Amed - Shops in Kaynartepe, Seyrantepe and Balikcilarbasi joins the protests by pulling down their shutters. Some grocery shops in the Ofis district are kept open to serve people their daily needs.

March 31, Behdinan (Southern Kurdistan) - The ‘Youth Confederation’ (Komalen Ciwan) issues a statement from the Medya Defense Zones (MDZ) urging the Kurdish youth to not stay silent and raise the fire of Newroz against the Turkish state and use their legal rights of self-defence.

March 31, Amed - Turkish police attacks lawyers from the Diyarbakir Bar Association representing 24 Kurdish mothers of the ‘Diyarbakir Peace Mothers Initiative’ arrested on International Womens Day. The lawyers are attacked physically and verbally while stepping out from court. The lawyers are called “traitors” and are told that “their time will come” and that they should “take their mothers and leave.” Another lawyer from the Diyarbakir Bar Association, Cafer Koluman, was attacked when he entered the office of the Diyarbakir Anti-Terror units to represent a protester held at the Diyarbakir police headquarters. The Turkish police breaks Koluman’s nose and throws him out of the headquarters calling him a “terrorist” and threatens him with death if he returns.

March 31, Amed - The Turkish Governorship of Diyarbakir puts the death toll to eight after the killing of two more Kurdish civilians. Fatih Tekin (3) dies in Batman and Mustafa Eryilmaz (26) dies in Amed (Diyarbakir).

March 31, Derik - Kurdish youth in the city of Derik in the Mardin province hold protests shouting slogans as “PKK is the people, the people is here” and “Don’t look in the mountains, we are here”. Turkish security forces are put on high-alert but doesn’t intervene.

March 31, Brussels - Hundreds of Kurdish protesters demonstrate outside the Turkish embassy. Protesters throw tomatoes and eggs at the windows of the embassy. Belgian police moves in to break up the protest, igniting a clash with the protesters. One protester, Rizvan Goktas, is wounded and several protesters are arrested. The arrested protesters are later released.

March 31, Amed - The Kurdish news agency DIHA reports that masked soldiers from the Turkish special forces are arbitrarily arresting people in the city. The number of arrested civilians was not reported.

March 31, Ankara - The Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul calls authorities in Denmark and demands them to shut down the Kurdish tv-channel ROJ TV.

March 31, Amed - Turkish police cadets were attacking civilian buildings in the vicinity of the Turkish Police Academy in Amed. The cadets threw stones, breaking the windows of the Kurdish inhabitants, challenging them to “come down” calling the Kurds “terrorists”.

March 31, Amed - 33 Kurdish children between the ages 10 and 18 were arrested for “helping and aiding a terrorist organization”. 80 more children between the same ages were planned to be brought before Turkish court on April 1st. Families of released children reports of intensive torture where all the arrested children were hung up to the ceiling and beaten by truncheons and electrified.

March 31, Istanbul - A bomb blast in the Fatih district of Istanbul killed one and wounded 11 people. The Kurdish militant organization TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons) claimed responsibility, calling the attack a “simple warning” and vows to shed more civilian blood in western Turkey as long as the Turkish state kills Kurdish civilians.

(THE DISPATCH WAS COMPILED FROM NEWS REPORTS IN TURKISH DATED MARCH 31 AND REPORTED BY THE KURDISH NEWS AGENCIES ANF AND DIHA.)