Seven members of Kurdish family killed in Turkey in 'racist' attack

Turkish police have denied accusations by rights campaigners that the attack was a hate crime

Turkish forces have been fighting against Kurdish militants since 1984.

Seven members of a Kurdish family were killed on Friday in central Turkey by armed assailants who tried to burn their house.

Rights activists have said the attack was fuelled by racism.

But Turkey's Interior Ministry denied the incident was linked to long-running tensions in the region and said the deaths were the result of a family dispute.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, which wants an independent Kurdish state, has waged a rebellion against Turkey since 1984 that has left more than 40,000 people dead and has led to harsh government crackdowns.

While Konya has seen periodic episodes of violence during the insurgency, the province has been spared from the fate of other Kurdish-majority southern provinces such as Sirnak and Mardin, where fatalities have spiked during the most recent escalation of violence, which erupted in 2015.

The Dedeoglu family had been seriously wounded in another attack in May by neighbours who told the family they "will not let Kurds live" in the Konya region, south of Ankara.

One of the victims complained in mid-July that police and judges were deferential towards the May attackers, who had been freed.

The family feared for their lives, the victim said.

Abdurrahman Karabulut, the family's lawyer, said the release of the attackers after the first incident gave them impunity.

"This was an entirely racist attack. The judiciary and the authorities are responsible for what has happened," Mr Karabulut told Arti TV.

Eren Keskin, vice president of the Human Rights Association, said the group was following the case.

"The youngest family member told me: 'We are very scared'," she said on Twitter.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said a years-long feud between two families was behind the killings.

He said describing the attack as a racist crime was "a provocation".

"This attack is not connected to the Turkish-Kurdish issue. Making a link to this is as dangerous as the attack," he said.

But the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party said there had been several attacks on Kurds over the years.

"The hate speech and provocation of the authorities is the main cause of this massacre," said Mithat Sancar, co-leader of the party.

It was the second deadly attack on Kurds in Konya in July.

On July 21, a Kurdish farmer was killed in a village in the region by attackers who shouted: "We don't want Kurds here."

But local authorities said it was a result of a fight over grazing rights.