They are the first batch out of 80 youths to appear in court on charges ranging from membership of an armed group -- a reference to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- to violating the law on demonstrations.

The remaining minors were expected to be brought to court in groups throughout the week.

Only the parents of the accused were allowed into Monday's hearing since the defendants were all minors.

Defence lawyers said they expected some of their clients to be released on bail.

If convicted, the minors face jail sentences of between nine and 24 years in prison.

Apart from the youths, prosecutors have also indicted 185 adults on similar charges and have called for sentences of between three years and life.

Riots erupted in Diyarbakir, main town of the Kurdish region, on March 28 after youths demanding vengeance attacked the police following the funerals of PKK rebels killed in fighting with Turkish armed forces.

A total of 16 people, including three small boys, were killed when security forces opened fire and used tear gas to disperse crowds, which attacked the police with petrol bombs and vandalised public buildings and shops.

Three women were crushed to death in Istanbul when Kurdish rioters set a city bus ablaze with a petrol bomb.

Turkish officials have accused the PKK, which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in the region since 1984, of deliberately pushing hundreds of children into clashes with the police in a bid to discredit the government.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for self-rule in the southeast.