Two killed in blast in eastern Turkish city

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Two people were killed and
12 wounded in an explosion on Thursday in the eastern Turkish
city of Van, police said.

The state Anatolian news agency said the blast might have
been caused by a suicide bomber, but this report could not
immediately be confirmed.

Police said the blast occurred near the office of the Van
governor. They said an investigation was underway into the
cause of the explosion but gave no further information.

Tensions have recently been running high in Van, a mainly
Kurdish city near the Iranian border.

A Van-based state prosecutor triggered a crisis this week
between Turkey’s powerful military and the civilian authorities
by accusing a top general of abusing his position and setting
up an illegal group he said was trying to foment unrest in the
Kurdish southeast in order to harm Ankara’s EU membership bid.

His claims have outraged the military and embarrassed the
government, which has distanced itself from the prosecutor’s
allegations and defended General Yasar Buyukanit, who heads
Turkey’s land forces.

Buyukanit, tipped to become the next chief of the military
general staff in August when incumbent Hilmi Ozkok is due to
retire, served in southeast Turkey between 1997 and 2000.

Turkish troops and security forces have been battling
separatist Kurdish rebels in the region since 1984 in a
conflict which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

The violence is at a much lower intensity now than at the
height of the conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. But a series of
bomb blasts in the region in recent months has stirred concern
about a return to increased violence.

The European Union, which began membership talks with
Turkey last October, has urged Ankara to do more to relieve
poverty in the southeast and also to bolster the cultural
rights of its large Kurdish population.