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Eleven people, including four policemen, were injured Sunday when clashes broke out at a Kurdish rally in western Turkey, forcing police to fire warning shots in the air, Anatolia news agency reported.
Supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) were attacked by enraged residents in Izmir after they displayed flags of separatist Kurdish rebels while riding in a crowded convoy in the city, the report said.
One person, hit in the head with a stone, was hospitalised, while the others had only light injuries, Izmir Governor Cahit Kirac told Anatolia.
Tensions flared when a vehicle from the DTP convoy hit a bystander, prompting the authorities to bring in riot police.
The security forces fired warning shots in the air after a crowd assembled and began stoning the convoy, Anatolia said.
The Aegean port of Izmir is home to a large migrant community from the mainly Kurdish southeast, where the outlawed Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule since 1984.
Ankara has promised the Kurds fresh reforms to expand their freedoms in a bid to erode popular support for the insurgency.
But the initiative sparked tensions last month when eight PKK militants, who came from rare bases in neighbouring Iraq and surrenderred to the authorities in a gesture of good will, were allowed to go free.
The judiciary's unusually lenient treatment of the rebels and the hero's welcome they received in the southeast unleashed demonstrations across Turkey.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000 lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority.
The PKK has long called on Ankara to halt military operations and agree to negotiations for a solution, which it says should include official recognition of the country's Kurds in the constitution.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds' identity in its constitution and of their language as a native language along with Turkish in the country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and constitution against Kurds, ranting them full political freedoms.
The government categorically rejects dialogue with a group it labels a terrorist organization and says it will not let up on the military campaign against the rebels. The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations.
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has praised Erdogan's efforts to end the conflict. His so-called democratic initiative aims to expand cultural and political liberties to address decades of grievances from Kurds who say they have faced state-sanctioned discrimination and violence.