Thousands attended Civil Friday Prayers across Turkey today. In spite of the extreme heat those attending the services had to endure yesterday, the numbers of women attending the Civil Friday Prayers have been growing every Friday.

The authorities took heavy security measures. Police were in every city and town square video recording the services.

The people’s religious leaders issued calls for unity and peace. Responses to the governing Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies were at the top of the issues discussed during the sermons, which were read in Kurdish.

“The Islamic religion teaches people to live together in justice and equality, and it tells nobody, absolutely nobody to violate the rights of others. For this reason, cruelty and oppression must not be inflicted upon the downtrodden,” imams read during their sermons on Friday.

Civil Friday Prayers were held in the following cities across Turkey:

Diyarbakýr, Bismil, Silvan, Nusaybin, Kýzýltepe, Derik Urfa, Ceylanpýnar, Siirt, Kurtalan, Þýrnak, Cizre, Silopi, Beytüþþebap, Batman, Kozluk, Antep, Van, Erciþ, Tatvan, Hakkari, Yüksekova, Doðubayazýt, Varto, Bulanýk, Malazgirt and Adana.