Deaths as Turkish Kurds demand action over 'IS'

At least nine people died in demonstrations across Turkey on Tuesday, with dozens more wounded as Kurds demanded action to protect Kobani, a town which lies just across the border in Syria.

Police used tear gas and water cannons at protests in the predominantly Kurdish east of Turkey.

Five people were killed in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish town in the southeast, where there were clashes between protesters and police.

A 25-year-old man was reported to have died in the town of Varto in the eastern province of Mus. In addition, at least half a dozen people were said to have been injured there as police and demonstrators clashed, according to local media.

The broadcaster CNN Turk Television cited the governor of southeastern Siirt province as saying that two people there had died. Another person died in the city of Batman, where a dormitory and school building were set alight.

There were clashes in the country's largest city, Istanbul, as well as the capital, Ankara, but no immediate reports of casualties.

Protests were also staged by Kurdish demonstrators at the European Parliament in Brussels.

A difficult relationship

Kurds have been particularly annoyed by the Turkish government's reluctance to allow its fighters across the border to fight "Islamic State" militants encroaching on Kobani.

Relations between Turkey and Syria's Kurds have long been strained, largely because the Turkish government accuses leading Syrian political party the Kurdish Democratic Union, or PYD, of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker's Party on the Turkish side of the border.

The PKK movement has waged a long and bloody insurgency in southeast Turkey, and is considered illegal by Ankara as well as the US and European Union.

rc/jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)