Oslo: Turkish/Kurdish protest

Elsewhere:
- about 1,500 Kurds protested peacefully in The Hague against the Turkish embassy, stopping to jeer the US embassy. The protesters called for a peaceful solution and for freedom for Kurdistan.

- Several thousand Turks protested in the "EU neighborhood" of Brussels against the PKK and against terrorism and violence in general.

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A brutal fight broke out when counter-demonstrators meet up with a legal protest held by the Norwegian Turkey-Committee in Oslo, Saturday afternoon. Twenty-thirty counter-demonstrators suddenly showed up. Some of them had clubs with them, said Finn Belle of the Oslo police. The counter-demonstrators held flags that symbolize Kurdish independence.

One man in the demonstration process was attacked by two counter-demonstrators. He was hit in the head by two people with clubs, such that one of the clubs broke. According to an Aftenposten photographer the men attacked for more than 10 seconds before police managed to separate them from each other.

Belle says that an ambulance was summoned but that he does not know how seriously injured the man was.

One of the counter-demonstrators was caught by plain-clothed policemen, while the other disappeared in the crowd. The Norwegian Turkey-Committee demonstrated against PKK terrorists. About 450 people had gotten permission from a police to march in Oslo. The mood was irritable and tense. Some of the Turks were on their way to attack the counter-demonstrators but were held back by police and by fellow demonstrators.

Kurds and Turks in Norway demonstrated Saturday in more cities around the country, reports NTB. In Bodø, 250 Kurds demonstrated peacefully, reports Avisa Nordland. They held an appeal in the city square against Turkey's plans to attack in Kurdish areas in North-Iraq. In Trondheim about 50 people demonstrated against Turkey's presence in Kurdish areas.

The demonstrations were related to Iraq giving permission to Turkey to strike against PKK guerrillas based in Northern Iraq.

Sources: Aftenposten (Norwegian), AD (Dutch), Metrotime (Dutch)