Clashes Between Turks and Kurds Already in Europe

• 09.14.2015, 15:57
•  Europe,  Near East,  World

The war that Turkish authorities provoked against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) goes beyond Turkey's borders, spreading not only to neighboring countries, but to Europe as well. Fierce clashes between thousands of ethnic Kurds and Turks took place in Frankfurt, Stuttgart and the German capital, Berlin, Rudaw News Agency reports. Dozens of people were injured. The police had to use tear gas to stop the violence.

It should be noted that Germany is home to about two million ethnic Turks. As for the Kurds in Germany, around half of them came there due to the Syrian crisis.

The tensions reached to its pick after the Turkish government imposed a curfew in the Cizre district of the country’s southeastern Sirnak province. According to Turkish Interior Minister, up to 32 PKK militants had been killed in Cizre, of whom only one is a civilian. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP, however said that the civilian death toll is 21, including children.

It is notable that in the German capital Berlin some 100 Turks affiliated with the "Grey Wolves", a Turkish far-right, extremist organization, waved their flags and verbally attacked Kurds on the other side of a police barrier. The Kurds reacted by hurling eggs across the line. As it is known, the "Grey Wolves" is one of the most famous Turkish nationalist organizations that operates in the European countries through sports and cultural organizations. The involvement of the "Grey Wolves" in these clashes proves that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan activates the Turkish nationalist groups against Kurds. The main proof of it is the fact that violence by the nationalist groups against the national minorities now increases all over Turkey.

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks has called for an immediate lifting of a curfew in Cizre, Today’s Zaman reports. He expressed concern about allegations of the "disproportionate use of force" against civilians. Stressing that Turkish authorities have the right to conduct anti-terror operations, Nils Muiznieks said that "the proportionality and legality of such operations must always be very carefully scrutinized".

The growing escalation of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict and the participation of the nationalist forces in these clashes give almost no hope for peaceful resolution of the crisis. Kurdish forces think the real target of the authorities is not PKK, but the Kurdish representation in parliament, which Erdogan does not want to accept. Thus, if he manages to exclude the PKK presence in Parliament during the next election, than the Kurdish settlement process can be circulated again, and the "separatist" Kurds may again become their "brothers".