Belgian police arrest over 100 in anti-Kurd demo
BRUSSELS, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Over 100 youths of Turkish origin were arrested on Wednesday night in Brussels after clashing with Belgian police during a banned anti-Kurdish demonstration, a local authority spokesman said.
Tensions have been running high in some immigrant Turkish communities in Belgium after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed earlier this month in an attack by Kurdish PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.
Pierre Bruylandt, a spokesman for the mayor of Saint Josse-ten-Noode, where the violence took place, said the youths were detained after destroying cars, bus stops and garbage bins.
A number of the youths were armed with metal rods and had concealed their faces with hoods and scarves, Bruylandt said, adding he had witnessed the violence himself.
"They demonstrated following the clashes at the Turkish-Iraqi border," said Bruylandt. He said the demonstrators had no permit to hold the protest.
Saint Josse-ten-Noode is a district of Brussels which is home to a large Turkish community.
Turkey's parliament has authorised the military to carry out a major cross-border incursion against Kurdish militants after the surge in guerrilla attacks on Turkish soil.
"This is exporting Turkey's problems to Belgium... It is as if one were demonstrating in favour of Belgian unity in Turkey," Bruylandt commented.
Saint Josse-ten-Noode was also the scene recently of clashes between the Turkish and Armenian communities after a committee of the U.S. congress voted to call the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
Tensions have been running high in some immigrant Turkish communities in Belgium after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed earlier this month in an attack by Kurdish PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.
Pierre Bruylandt, a spokesman for the mayor of Saint Josse-ten-Noode, where the violence took place, said the youths were detained after destroying cars, bus stops and garbage bins.
A number of the youths were armed with metal rods and had concealed their faces with hoods and scarves, Bruylandt said, adding he had witnessed the violence himself.
"They demonstrated following the clashes at the Turkish-Iraqi border," said Bruylandt. He said the demonstrators had no permit to hold the protest.
Saint Josse-ten-Noode is a district of Brussels which is home to a large Turkish community.
Turkey's parliament has authorised the military to carry out a major cross-border incursion against Kurdish militants after the surge in guerrilla attacks on Turkish soil.
"This is exporting Turkey's problems to Belgium... It is as if one were demonstrating in favour of Belgian unity in Turkey," Bruylandt commented.
Saint Josse-ten-Noode was also the scene recently of clashes between the Turkish and Armenian communities after a committee of the U.S. congress voted to call the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
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