Thousands of Kurds rallied in towns across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east yesterday to mark the 16th anniversary of the capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Mr Ocalan leads the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and is blamed by nationalist Turks for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the group’s 30-year armed struggle.

But for many of Turkey’s estimated 15 million Kurds, the 65-year-old represents the heroic leader of their bitter struggle for greater cultural and political rights.

It is thought that Mr Ocalan may call a formal end to the PKK armed struggle by March, but Turkey sees the unrest in the south-east as suggesting that the PKK is flexing its muscles as it looks to stamp its authority on the Kurdish region.

Four months after Kurdish people’s anger at Ankara’s reluctance to help defend their kin in Syria spilled over into riots, fresh unrest has broken out in the town of Cizre near the Syrian and Iraqi frontiers between security forces, PKK supporters and Kurdish Islamists. At least six people were killed during the riots last month.

The Kurds have been pushing for Mr Ocalan’s release, an amnesty for fighters and steps towards autonomy.

“The Kurdistan freedom struggle will from now on aim for the freedom of leader Apo (Mr Ocalan).

“We will step up the strug

gle for a free Kurdistan,” PKK-linked umbrella group KCK said.

On Saturday night and yesterday, demonstrators and police fought in the streets in Sirnak and Diyarbakir, the main city in the south-east.Police detained 17 protesters in Sirnak.

The Turkish government started talks with Mr Ocalan in 2012 but flatly refused to lift the designation of the group as terrorist.

But the PKK, which is so designated by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, subsequently declared a ceasefire and began withdrawing from Turkey to camps in northern Iraq.