Narcotics operation takes off in southeastern province of Diyarbakır 10 days after clashes

DİYARBAKIR - Anadolu Agency

A massive counter-narcotic operation has been put in motion in southeastern Diyarbakır’s Lice district, 10 days after the June 28 clashes between security forces and protesters that killed one person and wounded nine others.

Over a thousand security officials are participating in the operation, which targets substance production areas in the district, a common source of financial gain for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, according to state officials.

A melee between security forces and another group left one person dead and nine others severely injured on June 28, in clashes between police and local protesters opposing the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in the village of Kayacık in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

The Diyarbakır Governor’s Office previously blamed drug traffic in the region for the protests, stating that “the successful counter-narcotic operations of security forces were the reason for the recent incidents.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan too repeated the rhetoric in recent speeches, stating that the successful operations were the cause behind the unrest.

“Hashish and cannabis is the matter on which the Lice incident is indirectly based,” Erdoğan said during his speech at a parliamentary group meeting on July 2.

“Covering up this dirty, poisonous and bloody trade with demonstrations and presenting this as a quest for rights and a demand for democratic rights under the cover of these demonstrations is immoral and [shows a] lack of conscience. We will not get trapped in this plot.”