Ziya Akkaya, the mayor of the town of Bulanik in the mainly Kurdish province of Mus, said on Tuesday that the gunman, who was armed with an assault rifle, opened fire on a crowd holding a protest march in the town, denouncing the banning of the Democratic Society party (DTP) last week.

Akkaya initially told the NTV news channel that "seven or eight people" were wounded in the incident, but brought the number down to six in a later broadcast.

The shooting came after the protestors stoned shops and banks along the route of the march and harassed shopkeepers who had not closed their stores in protest at the ban on the DTP, according to media reports.

Anatolia news agency said the windows of the gunman's shop were broken and his vehicle torched by the protestors. It said that police detained the assailant.

Television footage showed a crowd of several hundred people marching through the town and some pelting an armored police vehicle with stones.

Ban triggered protests

Tuesday's fatalities were the first after days of violence and street protests following a Turkish Constitutional Court ruling on Friday to ban the only Kurdish party in parliament.

There have been daily protests in the Kurdish-populated southeast and east of the country as well as major western towns with large numbers of Kurdish migrants since the court ruling.

The court said the DTP had become a "focal point of activities against the indivisible unity of the state, the country and the nation" through its links to Kurdish rebels waging a 25-year insurgency for self rule in the southeast.

Setback for integration drive, EU hopes

The ban undermined a government drive, launched in August, to expand the rights of Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds in the hope of ending the armed campaign by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Some analysts say the danger is that the ban on the DTP will further alienate Kurds, and could fan support for militants.

The court decision was criticised by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is trying to end a 25-year-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.

The court ruling is also seen as a setback for Turkey' faltering hopes of joining the European Union.

The European Commission this week warned that the ruling deprived voters of the political representation needed for Turkey to fulfil its democratic mandate.

rb/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Trinity Hartman