Turkish Demonstrators Protest Brutal Slaying of Kurdish Family

A protest about an armed attack that killed seven members of a Kurdish family was held Saturday in the Turkish city of Van in the country’s central Konya province. Relatives of the slain family say the attack Friday was racially motivated.

"This was an entirely racist attack,” Abdurrahman Karabulut, the family’s lawyer, told Arti TV. Karabulut and the pro-Kurdish opposition party said the family had been previously targeted for being Kurdish. Gunmen attacked the family in May and the family was worried about being attacked again. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said calling the attack a racist crime was "a provocation."