A prominent lawyer and human rights defender, who faced a criminal charge for supporting Kurdish rebels, has been killed in an attack in south-east Turkey.
Tahir Elci was shot while he and other lawyers were making a press statement. A police officer also died in the attack, and two policemen and a journalist were injured.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack and there were conflicting reports about what led to it.
Interior minister Efkan Ala and other officials said the assault was against police officers, and that Mr Elci died in an ensuing clash. But the Diyarbakir Bar Association said the lawyer, who was Kurdish, was the target of the attack.
Mr Elci, 49, was the head of the bar association in the mainly Kurdish city and a human rights activist.
He was briefly detained and questioned last month for saying during a live news programme that the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is not a terrorist organisation.
Soon after, he was charged with making terrorist propaganda and was facing more than seven years in prison.
Turkey and its allies consider the PKK to be a terrorist organisation, and the government has stepped up attacks against it in recent months.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in south-eastern Turkey since 1984.
Mr Ala said the attack began with two people firing at police from an area some 100 yards away from where Mr Elci was speaking. A policeman died in that attack. Mr Ala said Mr Elci died soon after in a clash between the police and assailants.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke of two possible scenarios.
"One possibility is that after this terror attack, the assailants assassinated Mr Elci," Mr Davutoglu said. "A second possibility is that ... Mr Elci got caught in the crossfire."
Mr Davutoglu vowed to find the culprits through a "transparent" investigation and promised no cover-up.
A government official said four inspectors have been assigned to investigate the case, adding that the government was "determined to shed light" on the attack.
He said authorities believe that Mr Elci was caught in the crossfire, but were not ruling out "the possibility that a third party directly targeted him".
Mr Elci had said through his Twitter account that he had received death threats because of his televised comments in which he defended the rebels.
Authorities declared a curfew in the Sur neighbourhood where the attack occurred - a scene of frequent clashes between security forces and Kurdish youths.
Protests later broke out in Diyarbakir and elsewhere denouncing the killing.
In Diyarbakir, police used pressurised water against a group of protesters who hurled rocks and fire crackers. Police also dispersed hundreds of people who had gathered in central Istanbul chanting: "We are all Tahir, we are all Elci."
At the time of the attack, Mr Elci and other lawyers were making a statement about the destruction caused to a historic mosque by the clashes in Sur. Mr Elci had strongly advocated an end to the renewed violence between the PKK and security forces.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here