Jürgen Klute
His critics have to give him one thing: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a powerful politician who is as skilful as he is brutal. He has a good instinct for political constellations that allow him to ruthlessly assert his interests. His power-political interests also work in his favour for his personal and family economic interests, just as he does not care what happens to Turkish society and the conflict-ridden Middle East as a whole because of the geostrategic and climate policy challenges currently facing humanity.
This became clear when Erdoğan in 2014/15 abruptly ended the peace process with the Kurdish part of Turkish society after it had just begun. This was demonstrated when he concluded the so-called “refugee deal” with the then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2016, with which he has been able to blackmail both the German government and the European Union to this day. In doing so, Erdoğan ensured that the EU and, above all, the German government looked the other way when Erdoğan started a brutal war against the Kurdish population in Turkey shortly afterwards. In addition, the Turkish army and its Islamist auxiliary troops have established themselves in parts of the Kurdish settlement areas in northern Syria – in Rojava – in violation of international law. To this day, the Turkish state continues to terrorise Kurdish settlement areas in northern Syria and northern Iraq with bombings using drones, among other things, without any significant criticism from the EU or the German government, which traditionally maintains close contact with the Turkish government.
When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, Erdoğan also knew how to capitalise on this violation of international law. As a NATO member with a powerful army, he was aware of Turkey’s importance as a NATO member. When, as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the previously militarily neutral EU member states Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership, Erdoğan took advantage of this situation. Both Swedish and Finnish politics have been very open to the Kurdish movement in the past and have supported it politically in its fight for political and cultural independence. This was in line with the Swedish and Finnish understanding of human rights and democracy. Since Turkey, as a NATO member, had to agree to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Erdoğan used this opportunity to undermine the political backing of these two states for the Kurdish movement. At least in part, he succeeded in doing so.
In my opinion, the current massive attacks by Turkish groups against Kurds in the Belgian province of Limburg should also be seen in this context. On the evening of 24 March 2024, there was a clash between Kurdish and Turkish groups in the town of Heusden-Zolder. Some Kurds who had immigrated from Syria had returned from a Newroz celebration with flags showing Öcalan and PKK symbols. A group of Turkish origin then attacked the Kurdish group, who then sought shelter in a house. An encounter ensued and several people were injured. On the night of 26 to 27 March, a Kurdish restaurant in the Belgian city of Ghent was then demolished by a group of masked people. According to newspaper reports, a surveillance video shows one of the attackers making a grey wolf hand sign.
Representatives of the Kurdish community in Belgium are convinced that the right-wing Turkish organisation Grey Wolves is behind these riots. They point out that people of Turkish origin from the Netherlands and Germany were also involved in the riots. This speaks in favour of a well-prepared action.
If we look at Erdoğan’s efforts to put pressure on and isolate the Kurdish communities in Europe, as outlined above, then this Kurdish explanation of the riots sounds logical.
The Belgian daily newspaper De Morgen reported that tensions between the Turkish and Kurdish communities have arisen from time to time, but that there have been no such riots so far. This also suggests that it was probably an action planned by the grey wolves.
The reaction of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo was also significant. According to the Belgian news portal Flanderninfo he called on the Kurdish and Turkish communities to “put an end to provocations and violence. People are free to express their opinions and thoughts, but support for terrorist organisations will not be tolerated,” said De Croo. The term “terrorist organisation” refers to the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Erdoğan should be satisfied with this reaction from the Belgian prime minister. In September 2017, the Brussels Court of Appeal (Cour d’appel) concluded that the PKK is not a terrorist organisation, but a party to an internal armed conflict. Despite this legal clarification, which among other things refers to international law, the Belgian Prime Minister has described the PKK as a terrorist organisation and thus at the same time blamed the Kurds for the current riots between the Kurdish and Turkish communities in Belgium. Erdoğan will also have hoped that this renewed and apparently successful attempt to further criminalise the Kurdish community in Belgium and the EU would benefit the 31 March local elections in Turkey.
Not only will the European elections be held on 9 June 2024, but Belgium will also hold elections to the federal parliament and regional parliaments. The Belgian local elections will follow in the autumn. The Belgian Prime Minister and his party, the Flemish Liberals, are not doing well in the polls. As the Belgian newspaper De Morgen (see above) writes, the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang, which is currently performing well in the polls, is likely to benefit politically from the riots. The Belgian Prime Minister’s reaction should be seen against this domestic political backdrop.
However, Alexander De Croo’s appeal does nothing to pacify the conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish state. The governments of the EU member states must finally realise that Erdoğan is driving them further and further in front of him and thus undermining the political credibility of the European Union. Anyone who has made human rights, the rule of law and democracy their core values must stand up for them, especially in difficult political situations, and not allow themselves to be driven forward by a democracy denier like Erdoğan!
*Jürgen Klute is a former Die Linke (The Left) MEP and spokesman for the Kurdish Friendship Group in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. He is editor of Europa.blog and a columnist for Medya News.
