The Brussels Journal
Turks Set Cars Alight in Brussels
>From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2007-10-24 23:21
Tonight (Wednesday evening) heavy rioting erupted in Turkish quarters
of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Buses and trams were attacked.
Several cars were torched and shops destroyed. Police forces were
unable to restore law and order in the boroughs of Sint-Joost-ten-Node
and Schaarbeek where since last Sunday the animosity among Turks is
running high. Turkish flags are omnipresent. In some streets the
Turkish crescent and star adorns almost every house.
The Turks’ anger was provoked by rising tension with Kurds along the
Iraqi-Turkish border and by the debate in the American Congress about
the Turkish genocide of the Armenians in 1915. On Sunday night Turkish
youths in Sint-Joost destroyed the pub of Peter Petrossian, an ethnic
Armenian who had to flee for his life. Apparently, some Turks think
that by attacking the Armenians in Brussels they can convince the
world that the Turks never committed a genocide of the Armenians.
Tonight the youths attacked Kurdish shops. They also set fire to
several cars.
Belgium’s Muslim population consists mainly of Moroccans and Turks. In
the past rioting Muslim youths were mostly Moroccans. The Turkish
community is controlled by the Turkish embassy. The latter used to
restrain the Turkish population so as not to upset the Belgian
authorities and thwart Turkey’s chances of EU admission. This policy
seems to have changed recently. In Antwerp, too, Turkish youths
demonstrated tonight.
The events in Brussels indicate that in admitting large numbers of
immigrants Belgium has also imported the ethnic quarrels of the Middle
East.
Meanwhile in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, Moroccan
youths have been burning cars for more than a week now. Today a
15-year old Amsterdam schoolboy was stabbed by youths. The boy
survived the attack but is seriously wounded. On 11 October a 16-year
old Amsterdam boy was stabbed to death in school. On 4 September a
similar incident occurred in the Belgian city of Ghent where a 14-year
old Belgian boy fought for his life after being stabbed in the throat
by two immigrant youths from his school.