DIYARBAKIR — On January 8, unknown people suspected to be Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, sympathizers attempted to immolate a statue of Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, on Dagkapi Avenue in Turkey’s eastern Diyarbakir province.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the flames before the statue was completely burned. Once police arrived at the scene, the arsonists fled to the back streets of Suriçi district of Diyarbakir and their trails were lost.