Turkey riot police break up women's rights march

Turkish police detain fifteen women activists

ANKARA: Turkish police on Sunday fired tear gas to break up a women's rights march in Ankara with some 15 protesters reportedly detained.

The protesters, mainly from the Ankara Women's Platform, a NGO promoting women's rights, had gathered in the Turkish capital for the march called ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.

"We are getting stronger in solidarity," read one banner as riot police moved in and fired tear gas after the group ignored calls to disperse, AFP photographers at the scene said.



Fifteen women were detained by police, the private Dogan News Agency reported.

In Istanbul Sunday, a group of around 1,500 women rallied in the Bakirkoy district on the European side of the city, an AFP journalist reported.

The group was protesting Turkey's military operation in Syria targeting Syrian Kurdish militia, considered a terror group by Ankara.

"There is a war on our border. We cannot remain indifferent," one woman protester Meltem said.