ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> <br />STORY: Clashes erupt as thousands of Kurds gathered in the southeast town of Viransehir on Sunday for a demonstration organized by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party to show solidarity with Syrian Kurds.<br/> <br />Clashes broke out when riot police charged at a group of protesters who chanted illegal slogans favoring PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.<br/> <br />Syrian Kurds have long faced discrimination, a lack of full citizenship rights and forced displacements. But Assad sought to dissuade them from joining the uprising against him that erupted elsewhere in March 2011 by promising citizenship.<br/> <br />In the last few weeks, Syrian President Assad's forces have withdrawn from Kurdish towns or left only a token presence, opposition activists, security experts and diplomats say. The rebel Free Syrian Army is also absent, leaving Kurds to their own devices.<br/> <br />Turkey has accused Assad of arming a Syrian Kurdish party closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey for the past 28 years in a struggle in which 40,000 people have been killed.
