Brussels: Police prevent further Kurds-Turks riots

Brussels: Police prevent further Kurds-Turks riots


The Brussel-Noord police managed to prevent riots between Turks and Kurds through Facebook. Several agents infiltrated a group calling for violence against Kurdish demonstrators.

Emotions in the north of Brussels, where a large part of the Turkish and Kurdish community lives, heated up in the past few weeks. Kurdish protesters injured several Turks when they went out to the streets to protest the raids by the Belgian police forces. (See video from the Kurdish protest last Saturday. At about 0:50 some of the Kurds started attacking a Turkish kebab place.)

It wasn't long before the first hate group appeared on Facebook. The 16 year old Turkish founder called there to take revenge on the Kurdish perpetrators. But the police discovered the group and joined as members.

"It's a first," police spokesperson Roland Thiebault told Waloon paper La Dernière Heure. "We posted a note on the forum of the group in which we warned the members that participating in the riots will be persecuted. We also urged the founder to file away his plans."

The boy apparently didn't listen, because on the agreed upon time and place, he met the police, instead of a like-minded revengeful crowd. The agents recognized him from his Facebook photo and detained him.

Dutch-Kurdish site Rudaw reported that there were also calls by Turkish nationalists via MSN to gather in Brussels today. "Kurds and Turkis can't be brothers. The attack on March 6, 2010 on the Turkish restaurant Sultan of Kebab by Kurds cannot remain unanswered. Whoever doesn't join this demonstration, may not call himself a Turk."

Following a threat of terror attacks sent by an alleged PKK member, Rudaw also reports that PKK spokesperson Roj Welat told their reporter that the PKK does not intend to carry out attacks in Belgium, but that with the recent raids it's clear that Europe and the US don't want a peaceful solution for the Kurdish issue. According to Rudaw, the attack threat might have come from a frustrated Kurd, or possibly as a sabotage operation of Turkish-Belgians.

Sources: ZDNet; Rudaw 1, 2 (Dutch)