Twenty three Suffolk police officers and civilian staff were sacked or quit over misconduct in the past two years.

A document released under the Freedom of Information Act shows officers left after being accused of sexual assault, domestic violence and benefit fraud.
The force has also launched a drive to tackle a 46% rise in the number of complaints since April 2013.
Tim Passmore, Suffolk's Police and Crime Commissioner, said he would ask the chief constable to investigate.
Mr Passmore said: "Officers who don't behave with the highest levels of integrity are letting themselves and the people of Suffolk down.
"The vast majority of officers are hard-working individuals who give fantastic service, but sadly a minority don't behave as you would expect and I will be asking the chief constable to look at these figures and will work with him to see what else we can do to reduce them.
"These people are letting down their colleagues who do their job properly, because this tarnishes the majority."
The force recorded a 46% rise in complaints, from 259 in 2012-13 to 379 in 2013-14.
One woman complained officers had forced their way into her property while she was on holiday, causing damage, and it turned out they had gone to the wrong address.
Another had a complaint upheld after they alleged they were unlawfully strip-searched.
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Other upheld complaints related to the address of a witness being released prior to a court case "putting the victim and witness in fear".
A Complaint Reduction Strategy was introduced involving a number of training initiatives such as a podcast on integrity.
Suffolk Police said the force was still below the national average for complaints and the rise needed to be viewed "in context".
A Suffolk Police spokeswoman said: "We take all complaints extremely seriously and conduct thorough investigations while weighing up the nature of the alleged offence and the needs of the victim or complainant.
"It is now far easier for members of the public to engage with the complaints process in person, by phone, email or in writing.
"The increase in complaints and allegations may indicate greater public confidence in making complaints."


Thousands of people have marched through London to protest against the referendum decision to leave the EU.

Demonstrators at the "March for Europe" rally, organised on social media, held placards saying "Bremain" and "We Love EU".
In the referendum on 23 June the UK voted to leave the EU, with 51.9% in favour of leaving and 48.1% supporting Remain.
Critics said that those protesting who lost the vote were "having a tantrum".
Demonstrators gathered around Park Lane before setting off for Parliament Square. A rally also took place in York.
An organiser of the London march, Keiran MacDermott, said protesters hoped to stop the government from triggering Article 50, which begins the formal process of the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
Fellow organiser Mark Thomas, an activist, said he felt "anger, frustration" and a "need to do something".
At the end of the two-mile route, protesters gathered in front of Parliament, and listened to speakers including Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, leftwing commentator and activist Owen Jones and musician Bob Geldof.
Mr Geldof urged Remain campaigners to take to the streets, speak to their neighbours and work to stop the UK's exit from the EU.
"We need to individually organise ourselves. Organise those around us and do everything possible within our individual power to stop this country being totally destroyed," he said.
Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker also recorded a video message for the rally, holding up a world map and saying: "You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe."
Mr Farron later tweeted: "Wow. So inspiring!!! Such amazing support for Britain in Europe today."
Among the crowd was Tom North, from Norfolk, who was marching with his family.
"I'm here because I feel the country has been conned into voting for something that will turn out a disaster. I'm particularly concerned about the effect it will have on scientific research," he said.
His son Ace North, 34, from Oxford said: "I was able to do my PHD in an EU country thanks to being in the EU so I feel quite passionate about it."
Fellow protester Mark Thomas said the referendum campaign "was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration".
By Martha Buckley, BBC News
There is no official turn-out figure for this protest but there must be several thousand at least on the streets around Hyde Park corner.
There are whole families here as well as the young, the middle-aged, the elderly, British, European, Londoners, as well as those who have travelled from further afield.
The protest has been organised hastily, with a call put out on social media less than a week ago. Today many of those who spent the week sharing anti-Brexit memes online have turned up to voice their concerns in person.
There are placards, signs and banners aplenty expressing anger and resentment at the way the Leave campaign was conducted but also frustration at what's seen as a lack of clear leadership in the aftermath of the vote.
There is barely an organiser in sight and what police presence there is is very low-key - but this outpouring of feeling is also quintessentially British: Calm, polite and orderly.
Laura Honickberg, 33, from London, said she was concerned that the vote would lead to a rise in violence and hate crime.
"I'm Jewish and I find the rise of nationalism and hate crime in Europe deeply concerning," she told the BBC.
She added that she felt the Leave campaign "was based on lies, about money that was going to go to the NHS and now isn't, about what's going to happen to the economy. These are things that are going to directly impact me."
The protest drew criticism on social media under the #MarchforEurope hashtag, with posts pointing out that 17 million people had voted in support of Leave.
Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan tweeted: "A gentle reminder, Remain friends, that more people voted to leave the EU than have voted for anything else, ever."
Claims that Leave voters "weren't listening" and "just hate immigration" were patronising, Mr Hannan said.
One user on Twitter accused the march of being "pathetic", adding: "Just people having a tantrum about the fact they didn't win."
Others shared GIFs of toddlers having tantrums and compared them to those taking part.
BBC News website readers emailed in with their views.
Catherine Eastwood, from Kent, said: "The continued protests over Brexit are pathetic.  Those attending these protests continue to insult those of us who voted to leave by saying numerous things.
"I made my decision because the UK is a democratic society and I don't want to be dictated to by the EU.  So as we are still living in a democracy the Remainers should accept the outcome of the referendum."
Barry Needham from Bolton, Lancashire, wrote: "The vote was to leave the EU - that's democracy for you. Get on with it, stop complaining."
Others were in support of the march, with Robin Hassall from Arbelour, Scotland, emailing to say: "If I lived nearer to London I would definitely have joined the protest march. I believe it was a protest vote based on lies."
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs have been lining up behind candidates to replace David Cameron as the next prime minister and leader of the party.
Ex-Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith came out in support of Andrea Leadsom saying she was the "right person to lead" negotiations post-Brexit.
Mrs Leadsom has said the new PM must be a Leave supporter - which would rule out frontrunner Theresa May.
On Thursday, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, announced he was running.
The other candidates to replace David Cameron are Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox.


New Essex assistant coach Anthony McGrath has said it was "strange" to end his association with Yorkshire.

Former all-rounder McGrath, 40, spent 17 years at Yorkshire as a player before becoming a coach in 2014.
He joined Essex on Friday as the assistant to former Yorkshire bowler and Essex head coach Chris Silverwood.
"I've been at Yorkshire since I was 12 years old, and a new project and seeing how new teams operate will make me more rounded," McGrath told BBC Essex.
"If you're at a club for over 20 years it's going to be strange to leave, but the new role excites me more than anything."
McGrath worked as Jason Gillespie's assistant last season as Yorkshire secured back-to-back Championship titles.
Essex have struggled to make an impact in recent scampaigns, having been in Division Two since 2008.
"It goes in cycles - I had years at Yorkshire where we really struggled, but it happens at every county," added McGrath.
"Essex want to get to where Yorkshire are now, in terms of the Championship, and they've got young players coming through who can achieve that."


The role of a "virtual" college which helps degree students study subjects through Welsh language teaching should be extended, a review has concluded.

The study said Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol should become a recognised strategic body for developing the language in higher and further education.
Education secretary Kirsty Williams ordered the review a year ago.
She said the conclusions offered "a number of exciting opportunities".
The review of Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol formed part of the agreement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that led to the appointment of Kirsty Williams as Education Secretary in 2016.
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol currently provides support to universities to provide Welsh-medium courses.
Recommendations include:
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol launched six years ago and, while universities in Wales signed up to it, it cannot award its own degrees.
When it launched in 2011, the college received Â£1m a year and 109 students were awarded scholarships worth between Â£1,500 and Â£3,000 over three years.
"I hope the report and recommendations will assist to strengthen Welsh language provision across the higher education, further education and work-based learning sectors in the years to come," said review chairwoman, former Labour AM Delyth Evans.
Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said the Welsh Government would study the report and provide a full response in due course.
Ffred Ffransis from Cymdeithas yr Iaith education group welcomed the review but expressed concerns as to whether the government would respond with adequate resources.
He said: "Bringing all these fields of education together in a comprehensive way can enable the college to offer pioneering new courses in Welsh which could cut across traditional boundaries and empower students with the knowledge and skills to provide an economic boost for Welsh communities."


After days of volatility Chinese equities traded lower once again on Thursday, despite Beijing's efforts to calm markets.

The mainland's benchmark Shanghai Composite was 1.3% down to 3,751.48 points.
The negative open comes after the index had seen strong volatility since the beginning of the week.
Traders appeared not to pick up on efforts by the central bank to provide more liquidity to stabilise markets.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was also pulled lower, down 1.1% to 22,905.80 points.
Shares across the rest of Asia also fell on Thursday over worries about China's slowing growth and volatile equities.
The region's largest stock market, Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 0.4% at 20,142.81 points.
On Wednesday, China's Shanghai Composite fell by 5% at first before recovering to close 1.2% higher.
Sentiment was also muted by the weak lead from Wall Street overnight where oil companies saw sharp declines after another drop in the price of crude.
The minutes from the July meeting of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, also failed to inspire markets.
The minutes showed policymakers thought conditions for a US rate rise "were approaching", but there remained worries over inflation and the strength of the global economy.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 1.1% to 5,318.80.
But there was better news for the country's national carrier, Qantas, which reported a return to full-year profit. Shares in the airline edged up by 0.7%.
In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index fell 0.5% to 1,930.61 points.


A US air strike on Syria last year probably killed two children, officials say - the first admission of civilian casualties in the campaign.

"We regret the unintentional loss of lives," said Lieutenant General James Terry, head of the US-led campaign.
US Central Command said the strike on 5-6 November, near Harim City, targeted the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.
There had been no indications prior to the strikes that children were present, officials said.
The admission followed an investigation into the incident by US military authorities, directed by Lt Gen Terry.
A statement on the investigation said the Pentagon conducted a "thorough assessment, review and validation process" and concluded the target buildings were being used exclusively for military purposes.
Two "non-combatant" adults also received minor injuries in the strike, which targeted an explosives manufacturing facility, the statement said.
"The coalition continues to take all reasonable measures during the targeting process to mitigate risks to non-combatants and to comply with the principles of the Law of Armed Conflict," Lt Gen Terry said.
Thursday's statement is the first US acknowledgment of civilian casualties caused by the air campaign, despite a UK-based activist group documenting more than 100 deaths.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that 131 civilians had been killed in coalition air strikes since September, including 42 children.
A single strike on the northern Syrian province of Aleppo was said by the group to have killed 52 civilians, seven of whom were children.
A spokesman for US Central Command said at the time it had "no information to corroborate" the claim but added: "We take all allegations seriously and will look into them further."
The SOHR said a total of 2,440 people had been killed by coalition air strikes, the vast majority of them Islamic State militants.
US military officials have examined 46 separate reports of civilian casualties caused by the air campaign since 8 August, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Of those, 35 were found to be either not credible or there was not enough information to assess them, she said.
Three of the allegations, involving three separate incidents, are being investigated and the credibility of six other allegations is still being assessed, she added.
Relatively little is known about the Khorasan group other than information released by US officials.
They say the group is made up of veteran fighters from the Afghanistan and Pakistan region who have embedded themselves within al-Qaeda's Syria branch, the al-Nusra Front.
The US Air Force began striking Islamic State linked targets in Syria in September, leading a coalition including Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The UK and other European countries have participated in air strikes against targets in Iraq only.


Danone, the world's largest yogurt maker, has said it expects a "steep rise" in milk prices this year.

The French firm, which makes Activia and Actimel yogurts, said the increase would weigh on profits, but did not say if it would need to raise prices.
Danone also said it was implementing cost cuts worth 1bn euros (Â£850m).
Milk prices will rise in the "mid-single digits" in Europe, and even more in Latin America and Russia, the company said in its annual results.
Danone is overhauling its dairy division, where it is reducing costs and launching new products.
The firm, which also sells Evian water and Cow & Gate baby milk, said it was targeting profit growth this year of more than 5%, down from 9.3% in 2016.
British dairy farmers have protested over the effect of sharp swings in the price which they are paid for milk.
Global milk prices started rising again last year, and in December, the average UK farm gate price was 26.2p a litre, a 9% increase on the previous year.


Structural engineers have been inspecting a hotel that was devastated by a fire.

The blaze at the Royal Clarence Hotel, described as England's oldest hotel, started at 05:00 BST on Friday and continues to burn.
The facade of the building has partially collapsed and its interior walls have been reduced to rubble.
Firefighters extinguished the flames but said they were still dealing with some "hotspots".
More on the fire-ravaged hotel, and other news
The shell of the building is being monitored with lasers to detect movement, while a thermal imaging camera is helping to show the internal temperature of debris.
Gerald Taylor, from Devon & Somerset Fire Service, said: "Any decision on demolition will be discussed with the fire service, police and local authorities."
"While the public may not be able to see flames, we are still actively fighting the fires that are burning under the debris," he added.
"We're keeping our eye on one hotspot which has climbed from 30 degrees to 140 degrees in the last couple of hours."
A senior source within the fire service told the BBC that demolition work could begin as soon as Monday, but would be more likely to take place on Tuesday.
The Bishop of Exeter, Robert Atwell, praised the "heroic" firefighters for saving the city's Norman cathedral, and said he wanted to see the fascia of the Royal Clarence rebuilt.
"All the historic stuff inside has gone, you can't replace it, but I hope and pray that they rebuild the frontage as it was, because it deserves to be there, because that's what will preserve at least the veneer of the architectural continuity on the Cathedral Green."
The fire broke out above the Castle Fine Art gallery where renovation work was under way, before spreading to the Well House Tavern, a cafe and the hotel.
Guests at the Royal Clarence were evacuated from their rooms in the middle of the night to another hotel nearby. There were no reported casualties.
A spokesman for the fire service said the gallery and hotel had been destroyed by the blaze, but its cause was unknown.
Fire crews used water from the River Exe hundreds of metres away to help tackle the flames. About 80 firefighters remain at the scene.
Hamish Marshall, BBC South West News
Work continues on the ground to damp down hotspots, but fire crews are now moving to the next phase of this operation.
Firefighters must stop water getting onto the facade of the hotel in case it collapses and structural engineers will assess what will happen when demolition teams move in tomorrow.
Some local shops remain closed and the High Street has not fully reopened.
Holy Communion at Exeter Cathedral was moved to the smaller Chapter House.
Normally up to 400 worshipers attend. Today there was seating for just 100.
People have been sharing their memories of the hotel on social media.
Clare said on Twitter: "So sad to see the devastated Royal Clarence Hotel, lovely memories of birthday lunch with my husband in the wonderful Abode".
Others are already discussing what should happen to the site of the hotel once it has been cleared.
On BBC Breakfast's Facebook page, Matt said he hoped the facade could be saved, while Lizzie added "I hope they don't put something modern there instead".


A satellite tag fitted to a hen harrier has stopped transmitting in the same mountains where eight tagged eagles "vanished", RSPB Scotland has said.

The hen harrier fledged at a nest in Aberdeenshire in July.
The RSPB said its tag last sent information on 3 August from moorland in the Monadhliath Mountains managed for grouse shooting.
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association said there was "no independent information" on the situation.
Last week, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Moorland Group, whose members include landowners and gamekeepers, clashed over the loss of the eight golden eagles between 2011 and July this year.
The wildlife charity believes they were killed illegally around grouse moors, and their satellite tracking tags destroyed.
The Scottish Moorland Group said it condemned wildlife crime. It added that the RSPB had not considered other reasons for the loss of the tags.
The hen harrier, known as Elwood, was being monitored under a scheme run by the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime Scotland.
After fledging at a nest site in Aberdeenshire the bird spent time near Tomatin, south of Inverness.
The bird's tag last transmitted information a few miles from the Slochd Summit on the A9.
Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland's head of investigations, said: "This latest disappearance of a satellite tagged bird is deeply concerning, and joins the long list of protected birds of prey that have been confirmed to have been illegally killed or disappeared suddenly in this area.
"The transmitters being fitted to these birds are exceedingly reliable, and illegal persecution is therefore the most likely explanation of the disappearance of these birds of prey.
"The absence of typical breeding raptor species from areas of suitable habitat, or at traditional nesting sites, in large parts of the Monadhliaths is further supporting evidence of a major problem with wildlife crime in this general area."
A spokesman for SGA said: "As with other recent allegations, the SGA will work with Police Scotland and Scottish government in an attempt to get to the bottom of this. It is clearly a situation which cannot go on.
"We have no independent information, at the present time, so getting the facts will be the first step. Speculation, at this stage, will not help.
"The SGA does not, and will never, condone wildlife crime. As an organisation we advocate legal solutions, solely, as the means to resolve conflicts. If there is any evidence of illegal activity by an SGA member, appropriate action will be taken."
Tim Baynes, director of the Scottish Moorland Group, added: "We are as concerned as anyone when a satellite tagged bird goes missing and particularly in this case because the bird was part of a project involving Scottish Land and Estates and our members.
"This bird was tagged on one of our member estates as part of the Heads Up For Harriers."
He added: "Estates in the area where the bird went missing are also concerned but have not been approached by RSPB to help in any search. They are unaware of any incident and would be willing to help."


Newly established Canadian team Toronto Wolfpack will visit Super League side Salford Red Devils in the fifth round of the Challenge Cup.

Toronto, who play in England's League 1, entered at the third round and have beaten Siddal and London Broncos.
Elsewhere, Leigh Centurions host Hull Kingston Rovers - the side Leigh replaced in the Super League this year.
Meanwhile, Super League sides Huddersfield and Leeds will host Swinton and Doncaster respectively.
The fifth-round games will be played on 22 and 23 April.
The remaining eight Super League teams - who finished in the top eight positions in last season's table - will join the competition at the last 16 stage - round six.
Challenge Cup fifth round draw:
Leigh Centurions v Hull Kingston Rovers
Featherstone Rovers v Oldham
Leeds Rhinos v Doncaster
Salford Red Devils v Toronto Wolfpack
Whitehaven/Oxford v Halifax
Dewsbury Rams v Batley Bulldogs
Huddersfield Giants v Swinton Lions
York City Knights v Barrow Raiders


A new administration has been unveiled on Scottish Borders Council.

A coalition of Conservatives and independents is to replace the previous SNP/Lib Dem/independent alliance.
The Tories won most seats last week with 15, ahead of the SNP on nine, eight independents and two Lib Dems.
The administration has to be officially approved by full council on 18 May. It will see newly elected Conservative Shona Haslam take over as leader from independent David Parker.
Conservative group leader Michelle Ballantyne said she was delighted with the proposed coalition.
"We have worked hard to ensure that our administration will use the skills of its members to deliver the best services for the people of the Borders," she said.
"At last week's local elections, the Scottish Borders voted for change and the new administration will bring a fresh approach to providing that change.
"We have a lot of new members and we are not going to be afraid to use their skills from the outset."
Independent group leader Sandy Aitchison said he was also pleased with the outcome.
"It is fantastic to have 19 new elected members with fresh thinking and new ideas," he said.
"All of us in the new administration are keen to make the most of the new opportunities and energy of the council."
Ms Ballantyne is set to take up a position as a list MSP in the weeks to come but she has yet to decide whether she will continue in her role as a councillor after taking on that post.
Former leader David Parker will move to the role of convener, with responsibility for health.
Ms Ballantyne said: "We are delighted that David will be appointed to the role of convener, a not insignificant position, that is vital for the smooth and effective running of the council.
"David will play an integral part in assisting the new administration in embracing the challenges ahead."


A former Apprentice contestant who accuses US President-elect Donald Trump of sexual assault has filed a defamation lawsuit against him.

Summer Zervos, who alleges Mr Trump forced himself on her in 2007, said he lied to the nation about his behaviour.
The lawsuit, which Ms Zervos announced at a news conference, alleges Mr Trump is a "liar and misogynist" who "debased and denigrated" her.
The news came just three days before Mr Trump is sworn in as president.
"Since Mr Trump has not issued a retraction, as I requested, he has therefore left me with no alternative but to sue him in order to vindicate my reputation," Ms Zervos told journalists in Los Angeles.
She was joined by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, a Democratic party activist, who said the plaintiff's allegations had passed a lie detector test.
Ms Zervos is one of several women who came forward to accuse Mr Trump of sexual assault in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
The 41-year-old former reality show contestant said Mr Trump sexually assaulted her during a meeting to discuss job opportunities at a Beverly Hills hotel.
She said he "began thrusting his genitals" as she fended off his advances.
The president-elect has dismissed the claims as "false and ridiculous" and vowed to sue the accusers for their allegations.
Mr Trump, a Republican, has not filed a lawsuit against any of the women.
Ms Zervos' lawsuit alleges that the president-elect defamed her by denying her account and accusing her and other women of fabricating sexual assault claims.
She asked Mr Trump to retract his words late last year, but he declined to do so.
Ms Allred said Mr Trump "knowingly, intentionally and maliciously threw each of these women under the bus," and that repeatedly calling them "liars" in public caused distress.
Ms Zervos added that she would be willing to rescind the lawsuit if the president-elect retracts the statements he made and acknowledges his behaviour towards her.
The incoming 45th president faced a series of sexual assault allegations after the October release of a 2005 videotape in which he is caught making lewd comments about groping women.
The video prompted several women, including Ms Zervos, to come forward.
As it fought her allegations, the Trump campaign released a statement from someone it identified as Ms Zervos' first cousin.
John Barry wrote that he was "shocked and bewildered" by her allegations, insisting Ms Zervos had only previously said "glowing" things about Mr Trump.


These were well-planned attacks, carried out simultaneously a little after midnight, on military and police posts close to the border with Iraq.

About 100 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took part, some crossing the border from Iraq, some moving from inside Turkey.
The toll - of 24 dead and 18 injured - is the largest suffered by the Turkish security forces since 1993.
The response by the Turkish military has been a predictable one: more raids by jets and helicopters on targets inside Iraq, with ground forces moving around 8km (five miles) across the Iraqi border.
The military says it killed 15 of the PKK insurgents; it claims to have killed as many as 160 in air raids carried out since July.
The PKK has proved before that it is capable of such an attack, and of inflicting heavy losses.
In June last year, it carried out a very similar night-time raid, using large numbers of fighters, and killed 13 soldiers stationed at a remote outpost along the border.
The government vowed then that the soldiers would be better protected, and questions were posed about the suitability of a young, conscript army for tackling an entrenched insurgency.
If lessons were learned, they do not appear to have helped those battling the PKK in the latest attacks.
Bigger questions hang over why the PKK has escalated its operations against the military over the past four months, and why the Turkish government, which repeatedly says it wants to pursue reconciliation, has been unable to stop the harsh treatment of Kurdish nationalist figures by the judiciary.
Time and again, apparent windows for peace have been shut down abruptly.
In October 2009, following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's unprecedented offer of a new beginning for relations between Turkey's largest minority and the state, 34 Kurdish activists, including eight PKK fighters, crossed the border from Iraq, and turned themselves over to the Turkish authorities.
It was presented as a gesture, a test of the government's intentions. The activists were allowed to go free, instead of being prosecuted.
But then it all went wrong.
A jubilant welcome for the activists by tens of thousands of Kurds, waving PKK symbols, provoked a strong nationalist reaction in a Turkish public conditioned to think of the PKK only as an evil, terrorist organisation.
The government had rushed into a badly thought-out peace initiative, without preparing the Turkish people for it.
By the end of 2009, the main Kurdish party had been banned - for the seventh time - by the constitutional court, and dozens of Kurdish community leaders were being prosecuted under the draconian, catch-all anti-terror laws.
One Kurdish editor was sentenced to 166 years in prison, merely for the pro-PKK sentiments published in his newspaper.
It was a similar situation after the general election in June this year, in which Kurdish candidates did well.
This opened the possibility of Kurds pressing their demands through parliament, and working with the government on a new constitution - one of their central demands.
But a court decision to strip one Kurdish MP of his seat, and give it to the ruling AK party, poisoned the atmosphere.
Kurdish MPs boycotted parliament, and announced what they called their own "democratic autonomy" initiative, taking greater control of local government.
There has never been a constructive dialogue between the AK, Turkey's most successful democratic party, and Kurdish leaders.
They just seem to talk, or shout, past each other, even though both have acknowledged that the use of military force by both sides has brought about nothing but hatred and the loss of more than 40,000 lives.
This despite the fact that the AK is the first party to attempt to address the grievances of the Kurds, and has managed to ease some of the restrictions on Kurdish expressions of identity.
The terrible atrocities committed against Kurdish communities in the 1990s have left a searing anger towards the Turkish state, compounded by the poverty, unemployment and ill-treatment that blight the Kurdish south-east.
But such is the engrained hostility of millions of Turks towards the Kurdish nationalist movement, that any attempt to negotiate with it could cost a government significant numbers of votes.
The lack of leadership on the Kurdish issue has left a vacuum, now filled by the armed hardliners of the PKK.
It is hard to interpret its decision to increase its attacks on the army and police as anything else but an attempt to sabotage any future peace initiative, should it ever get off the ground.
In the current, bitter climate of mutual recriminations, that is unlikely to happen.


Witnesses aboard the New Jersey commuter train that crashed into the Hoboken station have said that the train didn't slow, and that the terminal "was the brake".

"It just never stopped. It was going really fast, and the terminal was basically the brake for the train," passenger Nancy Bido said.
Officials have not yet said how fast the train was moving when it collided with the station.
"It simply did not stop," radio host John Minko, who witnessed the crash, told local media. "It went right through the barriers and into the reception area."
"It was a mass scramble to get away from the scene," Mr Minko added.
Linda Albelli, 62, said she was seated in one of the rear cars when the train approached the station. "I noticed, 'he's not slowing up, we're going too fast,' and with that there was this tremendous crash," she told ABC News.
Rich Scardaville said the train approached the station normally, but it suddenly "lurched forward at the last minute.'' Then, he said, there was an "ungodly loud bang, like an explosion" before the lights went off and "everyone went flying".
Jamie Weatherhead-Saul said the train was "extremely packed, more packed than it has been in weeks. There were people whose faces were sliced open, eyes swollen, gashes to their face".
"My biggest fear was that someone was dead," she continued. "In that moment, that was life or death. There was no indication whether the train was actually going to stop."
Passenger Bhagyesh Shah, who boarded in nearby Secaucus, said that the first two cars of the train were particularly crowded because that makes for an easy exit upon arrival at the Hoboken station.
Passengers in the second car broke the emergency windows to get out, he said.
"The next thing I know, we are ploughing through the platform," Mr Shah told NBC New York. "It was for a couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity."
"I saw a woman pinned under concrete," Shah added. "A lot of people were bleeding. One guy was crying."


A tiny fox cub has been rescued after being found on the streets of Cardiff.

Members of the public spotted the cub on Samuels Crescent in Whitchurch on Monday but did not know what it was.
After initially thinking it was a puppy they realised its legs were too short and contacted the RSPCA.
The cub was taken to a veterinary surgery and is now being looked after at the West Hatch Wildlife Centre in Taunton, Somerset.
Animal welfare officer Sian Burton said: "He was freezing, crying and skin had come off his tail.
"He still had his eyes closed so must be under 10 days old."
Staff at the wildlife centre will now keep a close eye on him and will be feeding him a special formula to replace his mother's milk.
Apart from his tail injuries he appears to be healthy and weighs 330 grams.


A man in his 80s has died after being in a car crash involving four vehicles.

The crash happened on the A39 between Arch Hill and Kea Church in Truro, Cornwall, at about 11:00 BST on Friday.
The man, who had been driving a Vauxhall Corsa, suffered "serious life threatening injuries" and was taken to hospital, police said.
Part of the A39 was shut after the crash, involving a red Vauxhall Corsa, a white Peugeot Motor Caravan, a blue Volkswagen Tiguan and a blue BMW 3.


This incredible clip shows British snowboard star Billy Morgan pulling off an incredible snowboard trick: the world's first backside 1800 quad cork!

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16 April 2015 Last updated at 13:42 BST
He launched himself from a huge ramp, then flipped sideways four times and performed five full rotations.
That's a whole full flip and half a rotation more than the previous biggest trick, a Triple Cork 1620.
Team GB park and pipe rider Morgan competed in Sochi at the 2014 Winter Olympics and is perfecting his new tricks ahead of the next Olympics, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.


Farmers from Wales are joining a crisis summit with a warning the price they get for their lamb has reached critically low levels.

They claim their share of lamb sold on the shelves has dropped from 60% to 50% in the last year.
There has already been one protest outside a supermarket with farmers unhappy New Zealand lamb is being sold at the height of the Welsh lamb season.
Retailers said they wanted customers to have high-quality, affordable produce.
The National Farmer's Union (NFU) has organised Monday's meeting in London.
The union wants to persuade supermarkets to change their approach, and it also wants the support of politicians at home and in Europe.
Tesco and Asda supermarkets are accused by farmers of stocking cheaper New Zealand lamb, which is leading to a fall in the price paid for lamb per kilo here.
Dylan Morgan, NFU Cymru Head of Policy said: "There is a range of factors - the strong pound has affected our ability to export abroad, there are the issues with Calais, historically a significant proportion of our lamb goes to southern Mediterranean countries, where the financial crisis has affected their ability to buy our product.
"But the fact that New Zealand lamb is flooding into our market is a significant factor when there's a plentiful supply of the best quality lamb in the world available on their doorstep."
Unions say the gap has widened between what the farmer is getting and the price on the shelves.
Tesco said most of lamb it sold is predominantly Welsh and British while fresh meat counters only sell British lamb.
"We recognise the quality of British and Welsh lamb and we are proud to be the biggest buyer of it," said a spokeswoman.
"We clearly label the origin of our lamb and aim to give customers a choice to buy British, especially as we are in the British season.
"New Zealand lamb is recognised by customers as also being a good quality and it helps keep it affordable for the customer."
Farmer Jonathan Huntley, based near Pontypridd, estimates he could lose up to Â£20,000 this year if prices remain the same.
"All the lambs we're selling are well below the price of production.
"It's a substantial loss and whether we can sustain that going forward, only time will tell."
He said New Zealand farms have an advantage of being so large and to be able to compete he would need to expand his land "from Cilfynydd to Cardiff".
The NFU is also concerned about the continuing cuts in the price of milk paid to dairy farmers.
Morrisons said it tried to pass on lower prices to customers wherever possible.
Commercial Director Darren Blackhurst said: "We do recognise however, due to reduced global demand, that this has created an oversupply of British milk creating difficult conditions for many dairy farmers at present."
Asda said it was "committed to sourcing British products first".


Staff at the Open University are likely to face job losses as the institution launches "a radical overhaul".

A "root-and-branch review" aims to save Â£100m from an annual budget of Â£420m, said OU management in a statement.
The changes would result in "a revitalised and redesigned OU", said vice-chancellor Peter Horrocks.
"Changes on this scale will inevitably impact on staff," the university warned, and "in coming years fewer people will be needed overall".
The OU was founded in 1969 to offer higher education distance learning to students who often did not fit the traditional undergraduate mould - many were older and studying part time while working.
As the institution approaches its fiftieth year, management say their "major savings and reinvestment plan" will help it face the challenges of the next half century.
"We want to transform the University of the Air envisaged by Harold Wilson in the 1960s to a University of the Cloud, a world-leading institution which is digital by design and has a unique ability to teach and support our students in a way that is responsive both to their needs and those of the economy," said Mr Horrocks.
Staff make up two-thirds of the university's operating costs and the management say the number and types of roles will change, promising detailed work over the next six months to clarify the figures.
But staff have urged university leaders to "come clean" on what exactly the plans mean for jobs.
"Buzzwords about clouds and digital futures might work well for marketing purposes but mean little in the real world," said University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt.
"Staff are understandably worried about plans that appear not to have been thought through, and have little confidence in the next steps of the process.
"How many staff will be affected and where?"
Ms Hunt urged management to use the expertise of all staff to "reflect the full breadth of knowledge available within the institution".
The OU is the latest in a series of universities to announce job cuts this year.
These include:
The OU says its plans are, in part, a response to financial challenges.
Over the past 10 years, it says, successive governments have introduced funding changes which have hit part-time student numbers.
The OU's student numbers have fallen by almost a third with "a significant impact on income", costs have stayed the same and competitors are "cherry-picking" the most popular and profitable courses.
The university says the redesign will tackle "duplication and inefficiency" and will deliver a "world-leading", streamlined curriculum, a major investment in technology and retraining for staff.
"The OU will still be the OU. We will retain our core mission of offering higher education to all, regardless of background or previous qualifications.
"But we will be delivering it in a different way, matching future needs to future technology," said Mr Horrocks.
The OU currently has 170,000 students and employs 4,400 academics and support staff and 5,000 associate lecturers.
Cuts to regional centres resulted in strikes by OU staff two years ago.


Sussex head coach Mark Davis says out-of-contract Ireland batsman Ed Joyce is "undecided" on his future at Hove.

The 38-year-old, who scored 1,026 Championship runs at an average of 64.12 for the side last season, had surgery on his injured knee last week.
"I'm sure in the next couple of weeks, or possibly a month or so, we will know what the form is there," Davis told BBC Sussex.
"He has moved home to Dublin and hasn't quite made that decision yet."
Dublin-born left-hander Joyce joined Sussex from Middlesex in 2009 and captained the side from July 2012 until the end of the 2015 season.
Meanwhile, Davis says he is keen to recruit more all-rounders to help their challenge in all three formats in 2017.
The Division Two club announced the signing of South Africa international Stiaan van Zyl on Wednesday.
"Robin Martin-Jenkins left us a number of years ago and a replacement for him is key as it allows you balance the team," Davis said.
"It's not straightforward but the signing of Stiaan helps with that.
"A batsman who could improve our batting in white-ball cricket is important as well."


Novak Djokovic can take the first step towards regaining the world number one ranking when he opens his title defence at the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday.

The Serb, 29, plays Austria's Dominic Thiem in the first of the singles matches at 14:00 GMT (live on BBC Two).
Djokovic could reclaim the top ranking from Britain's Andy Murray with another successful week at London's O2 Arena.
"It's one of the things that we're all fighting for here, let's see where it takes us," Djokovic told BBC Sport.
"Being number one in the world, in a season like this, is of course the pinnacle of the sport next to winning a Grand Slam."
The top eight singles players and doubles teams are divided into two groups of four at the ATP World Tour Finals, with the top two from each group progressing to the semi-finals.
Briton Jamie Murray and Brazil's Bruno Soares take on Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi in the evening session at 18:00, followed by Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic against Gael Monfils.
For the first time since the season-ending finale moved to London in 2009, neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal will be present as both ended their seasons early to recover from injuries.
Djokovic held all four Grand Slam titles when he won the French Open in June, but a slump in form followed, opening the door for Murray to end his 122-week stay at number one last Monday.
"Completing the career Grand Slam was of course very satisfying but it took a lot out of me emotionally," said Djokovic.
"All in all it was a great season, I'm happy about it, and I'm here in London trying to finish the season in the best possible way."
Djokovic spoke of "private issues" after he lost in the third round of Wimbledon, broke down in tears after a first-round loss at the Olympics and has had wrist and elbow injuries.
Media playback is not supported on this device
He now needs to win at least two group matches and claim a fifth successive title at the O2 Arena to ensure he ends 2016 at the top of the rankings.
"Andy deserves to be where he is," said Djokovic.
"If you look at his results in the last 10 months he's been very, very consistent, playing finals in more or less each tournament he took part in.
"You've got to give him credit for that and I'm sure he's motivated to finish off this year with a title in London."


One month after a missing children's author was last seen, her partner has said her disappearance has "shattered" the family.

Helen Bailey, who wrote the Electra Brown series, was last seen walking her dog near her home in Royston, Hertfordshire, on 11 April.
There has not been any trace of the 51-year-old or her pet despite searches.
Her partner Ian Stewart said: "Whatever has happened, wherever you are I will come and get you."
Read more on this story and others from across Hertfordshire
Northumberland-born Ms Bailey, who lived with her partner, had gone for a walk with her miniature dachshund Boris and had reportedly said she "needed a little time to herself". She was reported missing on 15 April.
As well as the teenage book series, she started a blog called Planet Grief after her husband of 22 years drowned on holiday in Barbados in 2011.
Officers searching for the author have carried out extensive searches of the local area and checked hundreds of hours of CCTV footage. They have said there is nothing to indicate "foul play"".
In a statement, Mr Stewart said he hoped she would hear his message and "listen carefully".
"We miss you and Boris so much... We are shattered in so many ways," he said.
"You not only mended my heart five years ago but made it bigger, stronger and kinder.
"Together we learnt to live with our grief and move forward with our lives but never forgetting. Now it feels like my heart doesn't even exist. Our plans are nowhere near complete and without you there is no point."
Ms Bailey's brother, John, said it had been an "extremely difficult time" for her family.
Making a direct appeal to his sister, he said: "I know you had said you wanted some time and space and we don't want to intrude on that unless you want us to... All we need is some information that you are OK."
Chief inspector Julie Wheatley said it was a "highly unusual case" because Ms Bailey "seems to have simply disappeared".
"We literally have no trace of her despite extensive searches and inquiries which have been on-going since she was reported missing," she said.
"Whilst this very much remains a missing person's inquiry... as the days and weeks pass we and Helen's family and friends are becoming increasingly concerned for her welfare."
The force has asked for Ms Bailey, or anyone who knows where she might be, to contact them.


A family with a string of health problems say they have been treated by officials like "animals" after they spent several nights sleeping rough.

Jane Beard and Michael Birch, and daughters, Trudie, 28, and Ellen, 23, were evicted by Gloucester City Council for anti-social behaviour.
Michael, Ellen and Trudie Birch could face jail after breaching injunctions.
The family is now in temporary housing in Stroud after refusing other offers of accommodation, the council said.
The Birch family's situation was highlighted in the local and national media with them being involved in more than 300 incidents of anti-social behaviour.
Jane Beard, 53, and her partner Michael Birch, 69, are both in poor health and use wheelchairs.
The family were evicted from their home in Russell Street, Gloucester in December after living there since August.
They said they then "squatted in buildings and in doorways" until earlier last month.
When the temperature fell below freezing in January, the council put the parents up for six days in the Dorchester House B&B in the city, while Trudie and Ellen slept rough and squatted in a nearby disused building.
B&B manager Lynn Horsley said Ms Beard and Mr Birch were "very polite" and "always washed the plates up".
"I felt bad [when they had to leave] because they are human beings, you don't treat people like that," she said.
"She's ill and he's got double pneumonia. If they're going to be out and the weather keeps coming in, you're going to have two dead people."
Ms Beard, who also has diabetes, said she had "had enough" and blamed the council for "doing nothing".
She said: "I'm so angry. We're being pulled from pillar to post. We're human - not caged animals. Everybody has their ups and downs.
"My girls shout, because Trudie is partly deaf and Ellen is a vulnerable adult, she shouts too [which led to complaints about noise].
"[I'm worried] about my daughters because they are so vulnerable.
"And worried Michael will die - he's been told this."
But former neighbour Claire Tonks, said it was "fabulous" the family no longer lived next door as she would not have to tolerate them "feeding seagulls through the windows".
She said; "The smell from the house was horrendous, you could smell urine, faeces. You couldn't have windows or doors open because of the smell and the noise.
"We reported them about 40 to 60 times but that doesn't include all the minor things".
A Gloucestershire County Council spokesman said offers of accommodation had been made previously to the family which they had refused.
"We have been working together to look at potential solutions. Families often present themselves to us with a variety of challenges and difficulties," he said.
"We, along with our partner agencies have responsibilities to all those we come in contact with, no matter what the circumstances."
Gloucester City Homes said the family had been referred to numerous support services and agencies "over many years".
"However [they] have failed to engage with each. Many opportunities have been provided to help them change their behaviour."
Michael, Ellen and Trudie Birch are due to appear for sentencing at Gloucester County Court on Wednesday for breaching anti-social behaviour injunctions, which have been in place since last October.
Inside Out West is on BBC One in the west region at 20:30 GMT, and then available on the BBC iPlayer for 28 days.


From a purely sporting perspective, Rio 2016 has been an extraordinarily successful Olympic Games.

The sporting competition has been of the highest standard in the pool, on the track and in the gym.
There have been almost 100 World and Olympic records broken in what has, thus far, been a relatively drugs-free Games.
Indeed, for the second time in two years, Brazil has shown it can successfully stage a major international sporting jamboree.
But how many Brazilians were engaged by, or felt part of, the Rio Olympics is much harder to judge.
At open-air events or fan zones in the old port areas of Rio, there have been huge gatherings of several thousand locals, especially at weekends or when the big screens are showing Brazil playing football or volleyball, two of the most popular sports here.
This is an uplifting sight for two reasons.
These areas are often regenerated parts of the city that were previously too dangerous or dirty to visit and it also suggests that Brazilians have, to an extent, been bitten by the Olympic bug.
The reality at the many Olympic sports venues dotted around Rio has been starkly different.
Many stadiums have sometimes felt half full, even when officials had announced they were sold out.
There have been thousands of empty seats at the later stages of the tennis tournament, athletics finals and even the beach volleyball.
The volleyball games were held on Copacabana beach, which is about as convenient a location to the amenities and tourist hotspots of Rio's south zone as you can get.
Olympic officials, when pressed, admit that embarrassing corporate no-shows - sponsors who do not use or have not distributed their full allocation of tickets - are thought to be responsible for many of the empty-looking stands.
Brazilians not attending sports about which they are not traditionally enthusiastic, like hockey, rugby or badminton, also account for many of the gaps.
More often than not, locals blame high ticket prices, with some tickets for the most popular events going for 900 reais ($280; £215) which is more than the monthly minimum wage in Brazil.
Attending the Olympic Games in person has simply been beyond the means of many Cariocas, as Rio residents are known.
Coming into Rio 2016, some observers had predicted a litany of problems that could each contribute to derailing the Games; from the appalling water quality in the sailing venues of Guanabara Bay, to the Zika virus, to the critical transport infrastructure that was finished just in time.
While such an apocalyptic scenario was never really likely, not everyone is happy.
Despite the close attention of spotter helicopters to detect floating rubbish and eco-boats to remove the flotsam, several competitors complained bitterly about plastic bags and other waste impeding their progress in the races in the later stages of the sailing events.
More seriously, at least one team coach, Belgium's Will van Bladen, said that one of his competitors, Evi van Acken, was denied her chances of winning a medal when she caught dysentery.
The coach alleges it was from the huge amounts of untreated sewage in the bay.
Eighty-five-thousand troops on the streets of Rio have helped to keep this notoriously violent city peaceful, at least in those areas where sport is going on or where the tourists venture.
Privately, Olympic bosses admit that hey have sometimes "dropped the ball" and it has been a challenge running the Games in a city where too much was ready too late and where having four distinct sporting venues situated around the city has presented its own logistical problems.
But Mark Adams, Director of Communications at the International Olympic Committee, says that there are no regrets in choosing Rio.
"What people really need to remember is that we are in a country in the middle of a serious political economic and political crisis but it's been worth it," Mr Adams says.
"If the Olympic Games are about one thing it's about spreading these values around the world. It's worked in South America, so why not Africa next?"
For the past two weeks, Brazilians have appeared to forgot about the many wider problems in the country, including a deep funding crisis facing the forthcoming Paralympics.
They have enjoyed the fantastic medal successes of their sailors, athletes and judokas but you get the distinct feeling that Brazil won't be bidding to host another global mega event for some time.


Gateshead were unable to get back to winning ways after being held to a draw by Solihull Moors at Gateshead International Stadium.

Solihull goalkeeper Nathan Vaughan almost gifted Gateshead, who lost to lowly North Ferriby last time out, an early goal.
He slipped in the second minute, with striker Danny Johnson lurking, but managed to recover in time.
From there both keepers had to be on fine form during a tense first 45 minutes, with Johnson continuing to cause problems while Jack Byrne forced a great save out of Gateshead's Dan Hanford in the 43rd minute.
Johnson missed a great chance to clinch it with 10 minutes to go, racing clear from substitute Sam Jones' flick-on only to fire straight at Vaughan from a tight angle.
Report supplied by Press Association.
Match ends, Gateshead 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Second Half ends, Gateshead 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Substitution, Gateshead. Rhys Oates replaces Danny Johnson.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Stefan Moore replaces Omari Sterling-James.
Substitution, Gateshead. Adam Wrightson replaces Mitch Brundle.
Substitution, Gateshead. Sam Jones replaces Reece Styche.
Second Half begins Gateshead 0, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half ends, Gateshead 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Harry White replaces Andy Brown.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer have been recognised as comedy legends at Bristol's annual Slapstick Festival.

The award from animation company Aardman and festival organisers is to honour those who are "worthy heirs to the earliest silent film comedians".
The duo were presented with personalised versions of Aardman's Morph and Chas characters for their 25-year contribution to visual comedy.
Previous winners include Eric Sykes, Michael Palin and The Goodies.
Reeves and Mortimer have starred in several programmes together on TV, including Vic Reeves' Big Night Out, House of Fools and quiz show Shooting Stars.
At the presentation at Bristol Old Vic on Sunday, they shared clips and anecdotes about their work and video messages from artist Damien Hirst, Ulrika Jonsson and comedians Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Charlie Higson and Matt Lucas.
David Sproxton, co-owner of Aardman, said it was "important to keep alive an interest in visual humour".
He said: "It's one of the few ways in which we can unite people of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, languages and cultures.
"So we are delighted to see this year's award going to Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, in recognition of the attention they have paid to using visual and physical gags throughout their careers."
Other winners of the same award include Barry Humphries and June Whitfield.


A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of a man shot on a busy street in north-west London.

Yasir Beshira, 21, was shot in the abdomen and collapsed in front of shoppers during the evening rush hour on Kilburn High Road on 8 December.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, will appear in Willesden Youth Court later.
Four others were arrested in connection with the shooting. Two men, aged 20 and 22, remain in custody.
A 22-year-old man arrested on 10 December has been bailed until later this month and 17-year-old boy was bailed until a date in March.


Scotland saw a sharp fall in new car registrations last month but still outperformed the rest of the UK, according to industry figures.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 12,059 cars were sold in Scotland - 17.5% down on a year ago.
That compared with a fall of nearly 20% for the UK.
Industry leaders blamed the drop in part on consumers bringing forward purchases to avoid a rise in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).
New VED rates came into force on 1 April, making all new cars - apart for those with zero emissions - subject to an annual flat rate charge.
Despite last month's fall, Scottish sales were up about 1% overall for the first four months of the year.
Dumfries and Galloway was the worst performing area of Scotland in April, with registrations down by more than 42% over the year.
Source: Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA) chief executive Sandy Burgess said: "With the strong March and the added incentive of beating the new rules on Vehicle Excise Duty coming into play on 1 April there was always going to be something of an 'emergency stop' in the results.
"The tail-off was evident across our dealers showrooms and even online inquiry levels have softened.
"There may also have been the 'double whammy' effect as a result of the media speculation around the introduction of a new scrappage scheme to take the older less efficient diesel engine cars off the road.
"Ironically of course an introduction of such a scheme may well serve to bring a degree of ignition to the new car market."
He added: "Given the strength of the new car market over the first four months of the year, with numbers still up on 2016 by 1%, the retailers have fantastic levels of outstanding pre-owned vehicles and the message we are hearing is still a very encouraging 'business as usual' for anyone looking to change their current vehicle."


"The Beast" is still smouldering in the Canadian wilderness a year after the devastating inferno nearly destroyed Alberta's Fort McMurray.

Twelve months after the entire town was evacuated, the community is a long way from a full recovery.
Convenience store owner Sunny Katoch remembers handing out water and supplies to neighbours as they fled the smoke and fast-moving flames of the wildfire.
It was Alberta's largest-ever evacuation, with over 88,000 people forced to leave the Canadian oil town on a moment's notice.
Katoch's store sits at an intersection. As he and his remaining staff locked down the premises and the gas pumps, the manager "could see cars lined up to the south and to the north. It was chaos".
"I can remember the ash falling all over, flames, you could clearly see them," he recalls.
By 17:30 local time on Tuesday 3 May - just two days after the brushfire was first discovered about 20 km (12 miles) outside the city and 45 minutes before the entire town was placed under mandatory evacuation - Katoch pilled himself and two employees into his Honda and headed home to pick up his wife and two children. His car was the only one on the road heading north.
"That was not a good feeling," he says.
He collected his family left the city. The usual four-and-a-half-hour drive south to Edmonton took 14.
Every Fort McMurray resident has a story from that day.
Families were separated, people grabbed whatever they could - whether it made sense or not - and beloved family pets were left stranded.
"The one thing that unites us all is that there's the narrative - the initial beginning - which is that everyone had to evacuate," says Jordan Redshaw, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo communications manager who ran the official Twitter account throughout the crisis.
Nicknamed "The Beast" for its size and ferocity, the fire was the costliest insured natural disaster in Canada's history, with insurance costs totalling an estimated C$3.6bn (US$2.6bn/Â£2bn). Adding the costs to the government brings that price tag to C$5bn.
About 10% of all structures in the town were destroyed.
Despite the chaos, no one died in either the fire or during the evacuation.
At the time, Szymon Bicz told the BBC how he and his colleagues rushed into town from their work site to grab basic necessities before fleeing the city.
"The smoke was closing in on us. It was a very, very unpleasant experience, to be honest," he said.
He was not sure whether his rental apartment would be spared by the fire.
His apartment "somehow survived," Bicz , who moved to Canada from Sheffield, told the BBC last week over the phone.
He recalls the rush to leave town at the fire advanced - driving on the sidewalks and grass to bypass vehicles abandoned in the escape.
"That experience was very traumatic. It was so unusual. You never get anything like this in the UK, I've never seen anything like this on such a scale. It was very, very difficult to deal with in the initial days," he says.
He says the town remains deeply affected by last year's disaster.
"Lots of people never (went) back. People keep selling the properties now," Bicz says. "Probably they don't want to put their families through that again."
But Bicz is committed to the town and brought his family over from the UK in July. He says many have pulled together in the wake of the wildfire.
"All the good people who still want to be here are here, you know?" he says.
Painter Russell Thomas recalls the morning of 3 May as "beautiful".
"There was no smoke, anything," he says. He left town early for a painting workshop and only later learned the wildfire was moving quickly towards Fort McMurray.
He rushed back to get his family but says he "hit a wall of fire and smoke as (the neighbourhood of) Beacon Hill was going up in flames".
"Traffic came to standstill and I couldn't get back to my family," says Thomas. He fled south, his family fled north, finding shelter with other residents in the oil sands work camps. They eventually caught a flight to Calgary, where he met them.
His painting supplies were still in his car and he started painting immediately. One image, a stylised portrait of now retired Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen's tired face, ended up being shared thousands of times on social media.
"It somehow captured the Zeitgeist of the moment for people who were living through this thing," says Thomas, who thought people saw his art as a symbol of the bravery and stoicism of the fire fighters working to control the blaze.
A number of fire fighters who fought the massive wildfire have since developed respiratory problems or mental health issues.
Alberta wildfire authorities say the fire, which eventually spread across almost 600,000 hectares before being brought under control in July, no longer poses a danger.
When the snow has completely melted, fire fighters will scan the area to destroy any remote hot spots still remaining.
The cause of the Fort McMurray fire remains under investigation.
Fort McMurray is likely safe from another wildfire threat for years because the blaze burned much of the natural fuel that feeds forest fires.
The Thomas home was undamaged, but he says he knows many for whom process of reconstruction has been hard. Over 2,500 homes were destroyed. The AFP reported this weekend that 15,000 people had still not returned.
Initial planning estimates suggest the bulk of residential recovery will be complete by the end of 2018 - 18 months away.
Thomas says "the fact we have a community at all is in my mind a miracle".
Katoch was not one of the lucky ones. His home was among those destroyed by the flames.
"It was a heavy moment for me," he says about learning the first house the family ever owned - they had only taken possession of it in December 2015 - had been razed.
He says he sees similar strain on his neighbours' faces.
"Some of them are rebuilding their houses, some have a plan to leave the city, some are having problems with their insurance, some are having problems around health," he says.
"People are living day-to-day."
The steady decline of oil prices had already taken a toll on the oil sands-dependent economy in Fort McMurray when the fire hit, though the municipality's mayor said last week she did not expect the town's population to shrink.
The upcoming construction boom is also expected to create almost 9,000 jobs this year and will begin in earnest soon - the municipality recently issued permits for some 650 new buildings.
That is good news for Katoch, who hopes to move into his soon-to-be rebuilt home in six months.
"We try to deal with resilience and courage. Life goes on," he says.


Racing 92 sealed their place in the last eight of the European Champions Cup as they consigned Scarlets to a record defeat in the competition.

The Pro12 leaders were outclassed and made to pay dearly for indiscipline as Racing scored nine tries - five of them before half-time.
Dan Carter kicked faultlessly for 13 points, with man of the match Casey Laulala scoring a hat-trick of tries.
Scarlets' previous biggest loss was 41-0 against Clermont Auvergne in 2008.
The visitors were not helped by the last-minute withdrawal of South African second row George Earle with a calf strain, his place taken by Tom Price.
And they struggled to hold the home team from the outset as Carter opened his account with a penalty and converted Juan Imhoff's outstanding try.
Their resistance collapsed when first Maselino Paulino and DTH van der Merwe were yellow-carded for dangerous tackles midway through the first half.
Tries for former Cardiff Blues centre Laulala and Antonie Claassen quickly followed and, even when Paulino returned, Louis Dupichot ran in brilliantly to claim Racing's bonus point.
Laulala's second touchdown on the stroke of half-time came with Scarlets at full strength. Carter did not miss a kick in the first half.
After the interval, Scarlets' first-half miscreants combined brilliantly with Paulino sending Van der Merwe over after a storming run, and Gareth Davies crossed soon after with Racing's Mike Phillips in the bin.
But a penalty try after a driving maul restored the home dominance, with further tries coming from Imhoff, Johannes Goosen and Laulala.
Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac told BBC Wales Sport:
"They're a class side, very strong across the field from one to 15.
"But I was disappointed in the early part of that first half. There were 21 points scored when we had men off the field and the game was pretty much gone at that point.
"We talked at half-time about putting some pride back in our performance and there were some pretty good things in that second half, but the game itself was obviously gone at half time. So it was very disappointing."
Racing 92: Brice Dulin; Louis Dupichot, Dan Carter, Casey Laulala, Juan Imhoff; Remi Tales, Mike Phillips; Eddy Ben Arous, Dimitri Szarzewski (capt), Ben Tameifuna, Luke Charteris, Manuel Carizza, Yannick Nyanga, Bernard Le Roux, Antonie Claassen.
Replacements: Camille Chat, Julien Brugnaut, Martin Castrogiovanni, Thibault Dubarry, Chris Masoe, Maxime Machenaud, Henry Chavancy, Johannes Goosen
Scarlets: Michael Collins; Steffan Evans, Regan King, Hadleigh Parkes, DTH van der Merwe; Steven Shingler, Gareth Davies; Phil John, Ken Owens (capt), Samson Lee, Tom Price, Maselino Paulino, Rory Pitman, Aaron Shingler, Morgan Allen
Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Wyn Jones, Rhodri Jones, Jacob Cowley, Tom Phillips, Rhodri Williams, Daniel Jones, Steffan Hughes
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Touch judges: Ian Tempest (England), Wayne Falla (England)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)
Citing commissioner: Achille Reali (Italy)


The death of a man known as "Britain's oldest DJ" will remain a mystery, an inquest has been told.

Derek Serpell-Morris, known as DJ Derek, went missing from his home in Bristol last July aged 73.
His remains were discovered in March after a high-profile search, Avon Coroner's Court heard.
Coroner Peter Harrowing recorded a narrative verdict, saying it was impossible to know when or where Mr Serpell-Morris died.
Avon and Somerset Police said it had found no evidence to suggest anyone had harmed Mr Serpell-Morris or that he had intended to take his own life.
His body was identified by DNA and pathologist Dr Russell Delaney was unable to say how he died due to the level of decomposition. He gave the cause of death as "unascertained".
He added that due to his age it was "entirely possible" that Mr Serpell-Morris died from natural causes.
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Serpell-Morris's niece, Jennifer Griffiths, said: "I am sure nothing untoward happened to him. Nobody would hurt him - he was loved by too many people."
Hundreds of people turned out to pay tribute to him at his funeral at Agnes Church in St Pauls, Bristol, in April.


Robert Lewandowski scored his fourth goal in two Bundesliga games this season to help Bayern Munich see off a spirited Schalke.

The German champions looked set for a frustrating draw when Lewandowski missed from six yards.
But the Poland striker put his side ahead after Javi Martinez's threaded pass, then set up Joshua Kimmich for the second.
Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar hit the crossbar when the game was goalless.
Substitute Kimmich, 21, followed up his first goal for world champions Germany on Sunday - in a 3-0 World Cup qualifying win in Norway - with his first for Bayern.
Bayern's 19-year-old midfielder Renato Sanches, who helped Portugal win Euro 2016, made his Bundesliga debut following his summer move from Benfica.
Bayern have taken six points from Carlo Ancelotti's first two league games in charge.
Match ends, FC Schalke 04 0, FC Bayern München 2.
Second Half ends, FC Schalke 04 0, FC Bayern München 2.
Foul by Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München).
Benedikt Höwedes (FC Schalke 04) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Goal!  FC Schalke 04 0, FC Bayern München 2. Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski following a fast break.
Abdul Rahman Baba (FC Schalke 04) is shown the yellow card.
Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München).
Abdul Rahman Baba (FC Schalke 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner,  FC Bayern München. Conceded by Matija Nastasic.
Attempt blocked. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Douglas Costa.
Attempt missed. Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by David Alaba with a cross.
Substitution, FC Schalke 04. Sead Kolasinac replaces Benjamin Stambouli.
Offside, FC Schalke 04. Ralf Fährmann tries a through ball, but Breel Embolo is caught offside.
Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Leon Goretzka (FC Schalke 04).
Goal!  FC Schalke 04 0, FC Bayern München 1. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Javi Martínez with a through ball.
Attempt missed. Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Philipp Lahm with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. David Alaba (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box is too high.
Attempt missed. Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high. Assisted by Arturo Vidal.
Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Abdul Rahman Baba (FC Schalke 04).
Offside, FC Schalke 04. Benedikt Höwedes tries a through ball, but Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from very close range is just a bit too high. Assisted by David Alaba with a cross.
Attempt missed. Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Arturo Vidal.
Substitution, FC Bayern München. Joshua Kimmich replaces Renato Sanches.
Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München).
Max Meyer (FC Schalke 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt saved. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (FC Schalke 04) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Max Meyer with a cross.
Corner,  FC Schalke 04. Conceded by Arturo Vidal.
Renato Sanches (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Renato Sanches (FC Bayern München).
Leon Goretzka (FC Schalke 04) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt blocked. Renato Sanches (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by David Alaba.
Foul by Javi Martínez (FC Bayern München).
Breel Embolo (FC Schalke 04) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, FC Schalke 04. Max Meyer replaces Klaas-Jan Huntelaar because of an injury.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.


Why is India so touchy about criticism by a foreigner?

The latest outburst comes from minister Ambika Soni, who is enraged by a piece by the Washington Post on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The piece, written by the newspaper's Delhi correspondent, said the prime minister, who helped set India on the path to prosperity, is now in danger of "going down in history as a failure". The paper said Mr Singh resembled a "dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government".
Strong words, but nothing exceptional, really.
As his government lurches from one crisis to another, Mr Singh has borne the brunt of some trenchant media criticism at home and abroad in recent months.
Time magazine recently dubbed him The Underachiever, immersed in his "personal and political gloom". The Independent newspaper wondered whether the prime minister was a saviour or a "poodle" of the powerful Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.  The Economist magazine called him an embattled prime minister.
All quite fair in the spirit of free speech.
What is shocking, many say, is Ms Soni's reaction to the Washington Post piece.
Ms Soni heads the rather curiously named information and broadcasting ministry - an Orwellian irony in the world's biggest democracy, many say - and was quoted as saying that the article was "unacceptable" and she would take up the issue with the government.
Ms Soni said the government had "apprehensions about a foreign daily publishing something baseless on our prime minister... This is what we call yellow journalism".
"We have done this thing earlier and they had apologised," Ms Soni said, hinting at extracting an apology from the Post. "If the Washington Post has written things like this against the prime minister, trust me I will oppose it strongly."
I don't think anybody asked her how she planned to extract an apology, especially after the Post correspondent ruled one out. Would the government move to rescind his work visa? Would it ban the publication of the newspaper in India? Nobody quite knows.
The government and the newspaper are now having a spat over attribution of some of the quotes about Mr Singh's performance in the article. Mr Singh's communications adviser Pankaj Pachauri, a former journalist of repute, has written to the Post, saying it was a "one-sided assessment" of the prime minister and added that "comment is free" in journalism.
Again, a fair remark.
But what is disturbing, many say, is the minister's outburst: it hints at a strong intolerance for criticism, especially if it comes from a foreigner. Local pundits and journalists excoriate Mr Singh and his government every night on India's TV news; and newspapers are no kinder.
Many critics say such intolerance to criticism is a dark legacy of a party, which suspended civil rights and imposed an emergency in the country in 1975. It was the darkest period in Indian democracy. Critics also suspect the democratic impulses of a party which has essentially been run by one family.
At another level, Ms Soni's discomfort raises uncomfortable questions about tolerance in India.
As analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta says, India's governments are becoming increasingly intolerant as they face more scrutiny from an exploding middle class and a vibrant and growing civil society. "When exposed, governments are still trying the idiom of old politics to respond: use state power to silence critics, personalise the issue, avoid institutional regeneration and hide behind a sense of injured virtue to defend the indefensible," he writes in the Indian Express newspaper.
Clearly, this is a battle between old politics and new realities. When will the government wake up?


CCTV footage of a couple captured an hour before they were killed on a busy dual carriageway has been released.

Tadas Zaleskas, 26, and Nonita Karajevaite, 24, were both killed on the A47 near Terrington St John, Norfolk, on Sunday.
Ms Karajevaite's death is being treated as suspicious following allegations she was forcibly pushed into the traffic.
Norfolk Police said the footage, taken at Worzals Farm Shop in Walpole Highway, may jog people's memories.
Det Ch Insp Paul Durham said: "We now believe that prior to her arriving at Worzals, Nonita was wearing black trousers with a black and white patterned round-neck cardigan. She was also wearing yellow-framed designer sunglasses and was barefoot.
"It is thought that when she got to the lay-by on the A47, probably due to the weather, she has taken off her cardigan and rolled up her trousers, which gave them the appearance of leggings.
"A key focus on this inquiry is anyone who may have seen the couple as they made their way along the A47 so, with this new information in mind, I'd be keen to hear from anyone who may have seen Nonita to come forward."
The couple, originally from Lithuania, were engaged and lived in nearby Emneth.
Both died when they were hit by a silver Kia car as they walked along the eastbound carriageway near Terrington St John at 14:15 BST.
At 13:20 they had both separately spoken to an assistant at Worzals Farm Shop and asked them to call the police, but they left soon afterwards with no explanation. Police were not called.
On Wednesday one lane of the eastbound carriageway was closed while officers carried out a detailed search of the grass verge.
They recovered clothing, documents and a pair of sunglasses, believed to belong to the couple.


A man has been charged with murder after a woman was found dead in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

A post-mortem examination of the woman's body, found at a house in Curlew Place, St Neots, concluded she died from "multiple cuts to the neck".
Armed officers forced entry after being contacted by an ambulance crew and found a woman in her 30s, police said.
Timothy Allen, 40, from Curlew Place, is due to appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
The house remains cordoned off and inquiries continue, police said.


The British pair of James Ward and Brydan Klein both failed to reach the French Open after opening-round qualifying defeats at Roland Garros.

British number five Ward, 29, lost 6-4 6-3 to Italy's Matteo Donati, 21, a player ranked 99 places below him in the world at 270.
Klein, 26, was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky, 30, ranked 96th in the world and 115 places above Klein, Britain's sixth-ranked player.
Britain has no-one else in qualifying.
Andy Murray, Aljaz Bedene and Kyle Edmund are in the main draw of the men's event, which starts in Paris on Sunday.
The British quartet of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Naomi Broady and Laura Robson are in the women's singles.
Meanwhile, Ward, Edmund and Dan Evans have been awarded wildcards for the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club next month.
All three featured in GB's Davis Cup winning team last year, with Evans and Edmund both now top 100 players.
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle have bolstered their squad with the signings of George Oakley and Mark Ridgers.

Forward Oakley, 21, arrives after his release from AFC Wimbledon, while 26-year-old goalkeeper Ridgers was back-up at Partick Thistle last season.
Manager John Robertson is looking for more recruits, having already added former Falkirk forward John Baird.
The relegated Highlanders currently have a first team pool of 15, including the latest arrivals.
Robertson, who replaced the sacked Richie Foran last month, has allowed striker Scott Boden to move on, despite having two years remaining on his contract.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Belfast's Rebecca Shorten won a bronze medal as part of the Great Britain women's eight at the final World Cup regatta of the season in Lucerne.

The 23 year-old stroked the GB boat to a fast start and they were ahead after 500m but European champions, Romania and New Zealand proved too strong.
The Romanians came out on top, with the British eight comfortably holding off the challenge from the Netherlands
The GB eight now prepare for the World Championships in Sarasota in September.
There was no medal success for Enniskillen's Holly Nixon in the women's quadruple sculls.
Nixon and her GB team mates Bethany Bryan, Alice Baatz and Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, were always off the pace and finished fifth in a race won by Poland.


Nicola Sturgeon has challenged pupils across Scotland to read from a list of 100 books as part of a drive to improve literacy.

The First Minister's Reading Challenge is designed to encourage children to read for pleasure and develop a life-long love of books.
The initiative is supported by the Scottish Book Trust, which will roll it out for primary four to seven pupils.
Reading standards among P4, P7 and S2 pupils have fallen in recent years.
The reading challenge aims to build on the work already taking place in schools to encourage children to read widely, explore a range of books and develop a love of reading.
The Scottish government said its list of 100 books had been selected by a panel of academics, experts and teachers.
It includes Ms Sturgeon's favourite childhood book - Five On A Treasure Island - from Enid Blyton's Famous Five series.
Children will be able to log their reading progress, with a range of prizes awarded in June next year, and will be encouraged to write reviews of the books they read.
There will also be the opportunity for every child's personal achievements to be recognised by their teachers and librarians.
The challenge was launched by Ms Sturgeon alongside pupils from South Morningside Primary School at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
She said: "Encouraging children to read for pleasure not only helps our young people develop vital language and literacy skills, but also opens up a whole new world of adventure and fun through the exciting and varied range of books suggested.
"Some of my happiest childhood memories involve immersing myself in stories so I'm pleased to have the opportunity to encourage young people to also experience the joy of reading for pleasure."
The first minister was joined by author Alice Melvin, who said helping children to discover the joy of reading was "one of the best gifts you can give them".
She added: "Reading allows children to explore their emotions, expand their horizons, develop their empathy and, above all, to lose themselves in the drama of a great story."


A man accused of stabbing four women at random in a supermarket car park "felt hypnotised" during the attack, a court has heard.

Ethem Orhon, 67, told police he felt like he was being "remote-controlled" before the attack outside Sainsbury's in Hampton, west London.
Mr Orhon said he launched the attacks because he felt "mistreated" by police.
He denies two counts of attempted murder and two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Suzanna Brand, 53, Janet Morsy, 63, Jean Sullivan, 68, and Charandasi Chandiramani, 71, were randomly targeted in the car park on May 20, suffering "appalling injuries", prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said.
Excerpts from police interviews were shown to jurors at Kingston Crown Court
After being released on bail the previous day, Mr Orhon said, he went to the supermarket, which he described as "the most crowded place that I know".
Once there, he began "stabbing and stabbing", he said.
During the police and medical interviews, the defendant said he "became a different person" at the time of the attacks.
"There was one thought in my mind - which was go home, grab the spare knife and assault people," he said.
He added: "These were innocent people. They have done nothing to me. No conversation. I was out of control of myself. I was just stabbing and stabbing."
The court heard Miss Brand, was struck 13 times when she was attacked from behind, and left with two collapsed lungs.
Ms Morsy thought she was "going to die" as she was struck in the arm and chest as she tried to defend herself, the court heard.
Ms Sullivan was stabbed in the back, causing her chest wall, right lung and liver to be damaged, while Ms Chandiramani was stabbed twice in the back.
Mr Orhon, who is originally from Turkey, said he realised what had happened much later.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph told the jury about Mr Orhon's suffered from paranoid psychosis, which may put a person out of touch with reality.
Jurors were also told the "bravery" of two Hampton Grammar School pupils probably prevented more bloodshed.
The boys alerted police, distracted Mr Orhon and warned other passers-by he was armed and dangerous, the court heard.
Under cross-examination the accused said he remembered assaulting one person and following two men - who turned out to be the schoolboys.
Mr Orhon said he "had no memory of going to the Sainsbury's car park" or of stabbing the women - contrary to what he said during the police interview.
He told the police he had "rushed" at someone in the car park and remembered "stabbing someone in the back".
Mr Orhon dismissed the prosecutor's suggestion that he wanted to take revenge on the police who had strip-searched him.
He said: "It was a police trap and I have been framed. If there is hypnosis, there is a conspiracy.
"Even this voice (on the police tape) is not my voice. I'm inside a conspiracy and these things are easily set up."
The trial continues.


Southampton manager Ronald Koeman says Gaston Ramirez is back in his plans after the forward made his first Saints appearance in nearly 13 months.

The Uruguay international, 24, was a second-half substitute in the 6-0 League Cup win at MK Dons on Wednesday.
Ramirez, who spent last season on loan at Hull City, was Saints' club record signing when he cost them £12m in 2012.
"He's part of the squad, training well, well disciplined and not complaining. I admire that," said Koeman.
Ramirez's last appearance for the Saints was in a 3-1 victory at West Ham in August 2014 but injury and questions over his attitude have plagued his three years at the club.
Southampton also welcomed back left-back Ryan Bertrand for his first game of the season after undergoing knee surgery during the summer.
Koeman added: "He's good because he played 45 minutes [in an under-21 game against Reading] on Monday and another 35 minutes tonight. He is still maybe not ready for a whole game, but he's close to being back."


Keith Farmer extended his lead in the British Supersport Championship to 26 points after taking a runners-up spot at Brands Hatch on Sunday.

Clogher man Farmer finished behind Dubliner Jack Kennedy in Sunday's race after winning Saturday's sprint event.
Kennedy was clinching his second straight win after his runner-up spot at Snetterton was upgraded to a victory ahead of Andrew Irwin.
Irwin was ruled to have passed Kennedy late on in a yellow flag situation.
Luke Stapleford and Alastair Seeley were the first two riders across in the line in Sunday's race at Brands Hatch but neither can score points in the championships because of the make-up of their bikes.
Irwin was fifth across the line to take the points for third place as he was just 0.049 behind Farmer.
Kennedy's win puts him 33 points behind series leader Farmer with Eglinton rider David Allingham now fourth in the championship.
In Sunday's Superbike races, Irwin's brother Glenn clinched 16th and 14th places as Shane Byrne achieved a second successive race double.
Michael Laverty earned points with 13th and ninth places while Andy Reid finished 19th and 18th on his second Tyco BMW outing in the series.


A convicted Mafia boss who had been hiding in west London for 20 years has told an extradition hearing "I want to cut every tie with my past".

Domenico Rancadore, 64, was arrested in Uxbridge in August where he was living with his wife and two children under the assumed name of Marc Skinner.
He was found guilty of Mafia association and extortion in Italy in 1999 and given a seven-year jail term.
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard he wanted "a normal life" for his family.
The hearing was also told Rancadore, who was known as The Professor in his native Sicily, suffered from the heart condition angina.
Since taking refuge the UK in 1994, Rancadore and his family used the surname of Skinner, the maiden name of his wife's British mother.
Giving evidence, Rancadore explained why he had used a different name, saying: "I change my name, I change my life, I don't want to go back to Italy."
Referring to his stay in the UK he said: "I never commit any crime in this country. I love this country."
He said there were 460 defendants in the trial in Italy in which he was a defendant along with his father in the 1980s, and he described it as a "terrible experience".
Talking about his angina, he said: "I'm not very well. I feel destroyed. I feel very painful."
But prosecutor Hannah Hinton said Rancadore was "deliberately absent" from the 1999 trial, where he was subsequently sentenced, and had deliberately "hidden" his identity as he knew he was a wanted man and had changed his story.
Ms Hinton said: "What I'm going to suggest, Mr Rancadore, is that when you came to this country, that you were worried, concerned, that you were going to be arrested again and now you accept that.
"But previously what you were telling the court was that you only came here to make a new life for yourself, having collected your pension," she said.
Rancadore was also questioned as to why his signature was on a document instructing two lawyers to challenge an Italian judgment by appeal - implying that he knew he was wanted by police.
But Rancadore said it was not his signature and had not been in contact with lawyers or with his parents.
"I never gave my address to anyone in Italy. I never contacted anyone in Italy," he said.
Ms Hinton suggested Rancadore was aware when the trial began and also came to know about the sentence, but he claimed to have learnt about the sentence after his arrest in the UK.
Rancadore's wife, Anne, told the court the extradition would be "devastating" for her husband.
"If my husband was to go to Italy it would be difficult for me to visit him," she said.
"It would really be devastating for me and for family life as well."
She also said her husband's father was a Sicilian Mafia leader and her son would have been hassled by police if they had remained in Italy, forcing them to leave.
The judge also heard from law professor and Italian prison expert Patrizio Gonnella who said: "Italy has the highest rate of crowded prisons in the whole of Europe.
"Today the matter of safeguarding of health is the biggest, the most critical, issue in our prisons."
The case continues.