KurdistanObserver.com
Turks, Kurds Clash in Brussels after Kurdish
Cultural Centre Fire
Agance France Presse April 2, 2007
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.
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.
