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Turks, Kurds clash in Brussels after
Kurdish cultural centre fire
2.4.2007 |
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April 2, 2007
BRUSSELS, -- Tensions between Brussels'
Kurdish and Turkish communities flared Sunday
following a fire in Kurdish cultural centre, police
said.
Police used water cannons to break up a crowd of
about 300 to 400 Turkish youths gathered in a
confrontation with about 50 Kurds protesting in the
street where the fire occurred, police spokesman
Roland Thiebault said.
"After three charges with the cannons, the most
angry ones went away and the situation calmed down,"
he said, adding that five ethnic Turks were
arrested.
Police attempted to keep the two groups separated
and were themselves attacked by the youths, who
threw metal bars and bottles, Verleyen said. Seven
were arrested.
Verleyen did not identify the ethnicity of the
youths but the Belga news agency said they were
Turkish.
"It is well known there is tension between the Turks
and the Kurds, both of whom live in the area,"
Verleyen said.
It was not known who started the fire that sparked
the tensions, but ethnic Turks set fire in the past
to another nearby Kurdish cultural centre. |
Belgium police disperse Turkish and Kurdish people
during the clashes in Brussels. Photo: AFP |
An estimated 18 to 20
million Kurds live in Turkey, mainly in the Kurdish
southeast of the country where Turkish security
forces have been battling separatist PKK rebels for
more than two decades in a conflict that has claimed
more than 30,000 lives.
Turkey has eased some restrictions on the Kurdish
language and culture as part of its efforts to join
the European Union.
But Brussels says Ankara needs to do more to boost
freedom of expression.
AFP | Reuters
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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