Now there is even a ban on gatherings in Ghent after violence between Kurds and Turks: ‘I am not surprised that this started in Limburg’

After riots on Sunday evening in Limburg, there have now also been outbreaks of violence between Kurds and Turks in Brussels and Ghent. The Ghent police are now even imposing a ban on gatherings. What is going on?

“We don’t have one clear explanation yet. I was shocked by the violence in several places. But what doesn’t surprise me is how this spreads from Limburg to Brussels and Ghent. This certainly has to do with the fact that the immigration of Kurds to Limburg has been fundamentally different.”

How so?

“In Limburg there was a guest worker system in the 1960s where people came here from all Turkish provinces. Since that period, quite a few Kurds have come to live from various places in Limburg. In Brussels and Ghent there was chain migration, where companies recruited families one by one from small villages. If there were Kurds among them, they were often people who were well integrated into the Turkish community. And when Kurds fled to Belgium in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they did not settle where there were already many Turks, such as in Ghent and Brussels.

“Because of that history, tensions in those cities had never been an issue. The few Kurds in Ghent are integrated into the Turkish community and often mask the fact that they are Kurdish. For example, a Kurdish baker will give his business a Turkish name so as not to scare away customers. Kurds on the run settled in cities such as Mechelen, Leuven, and Kessel-Lo. These now appear to be the places from which the columns traveled to Limburg on Sunday evening.”

According to some sources, the cause of the Turkish anger in Limburg is a provocation by the Kurds who had celebrated the Newroz festival on Sunday evening. Videos show them driving around loudly honking with Kurdish flags and photos of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on their cars.

“That could well be the case. The Newroz festival is a very old, traditional Persian festival that many Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians also celebrate. It’s a kind of spring festival. But many Kurds consider it an independence celebration. In that sense it is no surprise that this chain of violence arises around this time.”

The Council of the Kurdish community in our country points to the Turkish Gray Wolves, an extreme right-wing Turkish organization, which according to them is behind ‘the attack on an innocent Kurdish family’?

“I think there is provocation on both sides, fueled by nationalism. 22 young people do not just spontaneously attack a café. That is organized. In Ghent this came from outside, perhaps spurred on by political motives. But I’m skeptical of the idea that the Gray Wolves are one big powerful movement orchestrating all this. That idea has been around since the 1980s, but the reality is less clear. It often happens that people leave behind or use certain symbols of the Gray Wolves without having anything to do with that movement. It seems more likely to me that some young people are encouraging young people.”

Meanwhile, Erdogan addressed a Turkish boy who was injured in Ghent, which could add fuel to the fire. What now?

“I cannot imagine Erdogan calling for violence. What is going around are calls not to shop in businesses suspected of being pro-PKK. In Ghent, the mosques have already been asked to call for calm and efforts are being made to target key figures in the neighborhoods. We know that this can work very well and quickly because they are respected people with authority. It may be more difficult in Limburg because the diversity there is so great, which makes it less obvious to calm everyone down.”