"Stop Turkish State's War on Kurds" and "Break the Silence on Kurds," some of the placards carried by the protesters in images broadcast by the RT network read. Another sign read "ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, outlawed in Russia] Made in Turkey."
The Kurds are Turkey's largest ethnic minority at around 14.7 million people and some 18 percent of the country's population.
Ankara is conducting a special operation to suppress the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country, which has been fighting for independence of Kurdish territories from Ankara since 1984. The group, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, seeks to create a Kurdish state in parts of Turkey and Iraq.
The Peace in Kurdistan organizing campaign said on its website that "while Turkey is a key NATO ally of the UK and USA and desperate to get into the EU, the UK and international media have said and done nothing to stop this brutality."
Mehmet Yuksel, a representative of the Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party to the United States, told Sputnik this weekend Turkish security forces were conducting "ethnic clearances" of the Kurds to force them out of southeast Turkey.
