We already know this about the riots
– A group of Kurds left Kessel-Lo after Newroz – the Kurdish spring festival – and provoked the local Turkish community on Koolmijnlaan in Heusden-Zolder with honking, Kurdish flags, PKK slogans and photos.
– A Turkish man was also allegedly attacked by Kurds. A large group of Turks then gathered in Kolderstraat, where the Kurds had hidden in a house.
– The Turks wanted to storm the house, windows were smashed and cars were destroyed.
– The provincial intervention plan was quickly announced and the police deployed major resources with a water cannon, a helicopter and many riot police.
– After the incident in Kolderstraat, the situation remained tense. Groups of Kurds and Turks clashed in various places.
– At least six people were injured during the riots at various locations in Heusden-Zolder and Houthalen-Helchteren.
1. Why are Kurds and Turks at odds?
“Everything can be traced back to the Kurdish struggle for their own country,” says Professor Lesage. The estimated 30 million Kurds are one of the largest peoples in the world without their own state. The majority live in the border area between present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with the main focus in eastern Turkey, where 18 million Turkish Kurds live.
The Kurds’ demand for their own country goes back a long way. After the First World War, in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, the Kurds were promised an autonomous state. That plan was thrown off the table in 1923 due to the seizure of power by Mustafa Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. The British, in turn, saw no point in an independent Kurdish state in Iraq, because the new Iraq needed the oil supplies of the northern provinces around Kirkuk and Mosul. Since then, the Kurdish desire for independence has been suppressed for decades by all countries in the region, both politically and militarily. The Kurds, for their part, have been fighting a tough battle for decades.
Kurds in Syria wave their Kurdish flag. — © AFP
2. What role does the PKK play?
The best-known Kurdish organization is the PKK: the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, or the Kurdish Labor Party, which was founded in 1978. “Since 1984, the PKK, which is not just a party but also an armed group, has been fighting a battle with the Turkish state for Kurdish autonomy,” says Professor Lesage. “The PKK does not shy away from violence, not even against civilians. That leaves enormous wounds in Turkish society. Tens of thousands have already died in the war. The PKK is therefore on the terrorist list of the European Union and countries such as the United States.”
Professor Dries Lesage (Ghent University). — © rr
The pennant of the Marxist and nationalist PKK, with its red star, could be seen in the Kurdish procession in Heusden-Zolder on Sunday. “We should not underestimate how spontaneously these disturbances can arise,” says Lesage. “In the diaspora, the conflict is very present on both sides. And some people in both communities are not averse to street violence.”
3. Why do the Kurds really want their own state?
The Kurds felt and feel that they are an unwanted minority not only in Turkey, but also in Syria, Iraq and Iran. “In Turkey, the Kurds have been treated as second-class citizens and are victims of oppression,” Lesage said. For example, it is forbidden to teach in Kurdish.
The PKK pennant, in an archive photo from 2014, when the PKK supported the fight against IS in northern Iraq. — © AFP
This provokes fierce resistance, because the Kurds believe that their culture, religion and language deserve their own place. Most Kurds, about 90 percent, are Sunni Muslims, but in practice they are often less strict in their doctrine than the Arab Muslims in the Middle East. For example, fewer women wear a headscarf and alcohol is tolerated. Kurdish, which is considered one language despite its many dialects, is also an Indo-European language and more closely related to Persian than to Arabic.
The Kurds now have an autonomous state in Iraq. In neighboring Syria, the Syrian Kurds and their YPG militias managed to conquer their own area in the northeast, the so-called Rojava. In 2018, Turkey launched ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in northern Syria because it fears that the PKK is using the Kurdish bases in Syria for the war in Turkey.
4. What is the situation in Turkey today?
“The conflict has flared up again in recent years,” says Professor Lesage. “In Turkey, the PKK is on the defensive militarily. In 2012-2013, there were serious peace talks between President Erdogan and the PKK, but the talks failed. Today, Erdogan is no longer interested in talks and has staked everything on the military destruction of the PKK. We should not forget that not all Kurds are supporters of the PKK. The PKK probably has several thousand fighters and a few million sympathizers, but there are also many Kurds who do not associate with the PKK. Many Kurds even vote for Erdogan because they have been assimilated, which has been the goal of the Turkish state since 1923. Moreover, many conservative Kurds associate themselves religiously with the Turkish state rather than with ethnic Kurdish nationalism.”
5. How strong is the PKK in Belgium?
An estimated one and a half million Kurds live in Europe, of which roughly 50,000 live in Belgium. “The military leaders of the PKK have always used our country as a place of residence,” said Professor Lesage. “The Kurdish umbrella organization in Syria and Iran is also controlled from our country. This has to do with the sympathy for the PKK in our country. Flemish nationalists support the Kurds in their struggle for autonomy, while in Wallonia the left-wing parties see it as a liberation struggle. The perception of the PKK is therefore remarkably tolerant. The PKK is rarely criticized for its violence. The organization regularly takes to the streets without much fuss. If a terrorist movement like Hamas were to do that, it would cause much more controversy. I think this has to do with the PKK’s fight against an Islamic actor. If the PKK were an Islamic movement, there would be much less sympathy. I see the PKK and its hard struggle as an obstacle to a solution rather than bringing Kurdish autonomy closer.”
6. What role does PKK leader Öcalan still play?
The Kurds who drove through Heusden-Zolder on Sunday had not only attached the Kurdish flag to their car, but also the flag with the image of Abdullah Öcalan, the legendary founder of the PKK. That worked like a red rag to a bull, because Öcalan is the face of the PKK.
The flag of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan was burned in Heusden-Zolder on Sunday evening by Turkish rioters. — © rr
He has been in captivity on the island of Imrali off the Turkish coast since 1999. Under pressure from the European Union, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. From prison, Öcalan repeatedly called on the PKK to stop the armed struggle, but that did not happen.
“The leadership of the PKK is in Iraq today and does not take Öcalan into account,” says Lesage. “On the other hand, he remains the political leader. People continue to venerate him. Even though he would probably prefer to make a deal with the Turkish state.”