Turks and Kurds Clashes in Belgium: Understanding the Political Tensions

2024-03-28 05:37:00

In three days, Belgium rediscovered the intensity and violence which govern the relations between the ultranationalist supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the most radical supporters of the Kurdish cause. Since Sunday evening, vendettas have followed political provocations and are causing heavy damage, to the point that representatives of the two diasporas communicated on Wednesday to seriously reduce tension.

It all started on Sunday evening, when members of the Kurdish community passed through a Turkish district Heusden-Zolder (Limburg) known to shelter Gray Wolves on their return from the celebrations of Nowruz, the new year of the Persian calendar. The convoy displayed yellow green red flags, the tricolor version of the Kurdish national movement, flags of Iraqi Kurdistan and the effigy of Abdullah Öcalan, incarcerated leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), an organization considered terrorist by the European Union.

This display of political symbols was taken as “pure provocation”, as Safa Akyol, president of Bizzturk, asserts. This representative of an umbrella of Belgian-Turkish associations believes, however, that this is not an export of the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish rebels, but only a cycle of violence which follows “attacks by sympathizers of the PKK”. “The pure provocation comes from the side of the attacked group of terrorists who put PKK flags on their cars.”

Following these “provocations”, Kurdish homes were stormed in Limburg. In Cheratte (Liège), a café linked to the Turkish community was attacked Monday evening by around fifty hooded and armed people. The same day, scuffles took place during a pro-Kurdish demonstration on Place du Luxembourg in Brussels.

Violence between Turks and Kurds in Belgium, Gray Wolves accused: “Disorganized ultranationalist Turkish individuals”

In Germany, Turkish ultranationalists have called on members of the pro-Erdogan diaspora to take masks, weapons and gloves to burn everything belonging to the Kurds of Belgium. For their part, supporters of the PKK have distributed the addresses of those they consider to be Gray Wolves (Turkish neofascist armed movement) in Belgium. They disclose personal information, first names, family photos. Pro-PKK people were also filmed wearing hoods with molotov cocktails in their hands. The videos, which we were able to consult, are playing in a loop on the social networks of the different diasporas.

This violence which occurs in Brussels, Heusden-Zolder, Liège, Ghent, Maasmachelen, Beringen, Houthalen, Cheratte and Visé is widely commented on in Turkey. Some local media report that Belgian Kurds were taken hostage. The feat of arms is acclaimed and presented as a neutralization of PKK sympathizers. From Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described these supporters as “immoral, despicable and villainous people”.

A Turkish media report that the Turks neutralized two PKK sympathizers. ©DR

“It is appropriate to see these incidents in a whole which has its origins in a conflict almost a century old,” reframes Bahar Kimyongür, Turkish writer on whose head a price was put by the Erdogan regime. “The problem is eminently political and ideological. The average Turk has no aggression towards the average Kurd. These clashes are the work of leaders, provocateurs excited by their nationalism. A normally constituted citizen would have displayed indifference in the face of a family waving the emblems of the Kurdish national movement. But for the Gray Wolves, the Kurdish flag is a rag that has no right to exist.”

The council of Kurdish communities calls for calm and rejects the cascading violence: “Belgian laws must be respected”

Concerned, a group of Belgian-Turkish associations sent an email to the Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden (CD&V). “We encourage you, Madam Minister, to coordinate more carefully with law enforcement in order to put in place appropriate security arrangements during events linked to groups such as the PKK,” they write.

NavBel, the council of Kurdish communities, called on its members to act only “within the legal, humane and peaceful framework”.

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