Thousands mourn Kurdish lawyer shot dead in Turkey

Tens of thousands of people on Sunday mourned the killing of a prominent Kurdishhuman rights lawyer in Turkey's troubled southeast that has raised new tensions with its biggest ethnic minority. 

Tahir Elci, one of the country's best-known advocates for Kurdish rights, was killed on Saturday during a gun battle between police and unidentified gunmen in southeastern city ofDiyarbakir while making a statement calling for calm. Two police were also killed.

The death of Elci, who was the head of Diyarbakir Bar Association, triggered protests from Diyarbakir to Istanbul, where police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. 

Some 50,000 people mourned as his casket draped in the red, yellow and green Kurdishflag and red carnations made its way through the streets of Diyarbakir -- the biggest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, an AFP correspondent reported. 

Many colleagues including Metin Feyzioglu, head of the Turkish Bar Association, carried his coffin, while prayers and slogans echoed from the crowd, who had gathered behind a huge black banner that read: "We will never forget you." 

"Martyrs do not die, Tahir Elci is immortal," demonstrators chanted in Kurdish. 

Elci was killed by a single bullet to his head, but it was not clear whether the attack directly targeted the lawyer or whether he died in the crossfire during shooting between the assailants and police.

"We are very sad. It's a bullet that targeted peace and orphaned an entire people. We owe him a lot because this person struggled for peace. All he wanted was peace," said Diyarbakir resident Kadri Kavut, 47. 

"One Tahir was lost but 1,000 other Tahirs will replace him," said Mehmet Tekin, another mourner.