Workers of main Kurdish city Diyarbakır's Kayapınar Municipality have staged the 186th of their weekly “Black Thursday” protest for jailed mayor Zülküf Karatekin, deputy mayor Sabahattin Dinç and all other Kurdish politicians in Turkish jails.

The protest demo in front of Kayapınar Municipality was joined by deputy mayors Celal Efe and İhsan Avcı, former mayor of Yenişehir Municipality Fırat Anlı, Sur deputy mayor Türki Gültekin, Tüm-Bel-Sen Amed Branch Chair Medeni Alpkaya, peace mothers activists and members of the municipal council.

Speaking here, Genel-İş union representative Mehmet Şah Sarıkaya called for the urgent release of jailed Kurdish politicians as a goodwill manifestation in the ongoing process in search of a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Sarıkaya remarked that this would reveal whether the government's so-called democratisation package is for the benefit of the people or not.

Sarıkaya underlined that the ruling AKP government faded the hopes for peace by displaying an anti-democratic attitude in response to the steps of the Kurdish side. Sarıkaya voiced concerns over the probable re-beginning of deaths and pains in the country following a deadlock in the ongoing process, and called on the government to see these concerns voiced by a large part of the society.

The protest demo ended following a five-minute sit-in outside the municipality.