BRUSSELS: Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for calm on Wednesday after escalating tensions between Turkish and Kurdish groups in the country just days before local elections in Türkiye.
“We are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together (in harmony) as we have done for decades in our country,” De Croo said.
“Let’s stop... these demonstrations of support for organizations classified as terrorist,” he told reporters, referring to the Kurdish PKK group.
There have been a series of clashes between Turks and Kurds in eastern Belgium including riots on Sunday, with subsequent tit-for-tat claims.
The Turkish foreign ministry blamed outlawed “PKK militants” from Leuven for Sunday’s clashes in Limburg. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies including Belgium.
But NavBel, the council representing Kurdish groups in Belgium, said a Syrian Kurdish family suffered a “brutal attack” by Turkiye’s Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist organization.
Then in an incident believed to be an anti-Turk attack, a cafe in Vise, near Liege, was targeted overnight between Monday and Tuesday by individuals armed with baseball bats that left several people hurt.
The public prosecutor’s offices in Limburg and Liege confirmed to AFP they were investigating the violent incidents but would not provide more information.
Tensions rose again after a protest on Monday in front of the European Parliament in Brussels by Kurdish groups in response to the riots at the weekend.
The demonstration descended into violence and the police used water cannon to disperse around 200 protesters, who had held images of jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to his Belgian counterpart Hadja Lahbib on Sunday night after the clashes, his ministry said this week.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to one of those injured, a 16-year-old boy of Turkish origin, by telephone in a video shared by the presidency on Tuesday evening.
De Croo said Belgium was “following this closely because there are other key moments in the coming days,” referring to local elections in Türkiye on March 31.
Belgium urges calm after clashes between Turks, Kurds
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Belgium urges calm after clashes between Turks, Kurds
- “We are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together (in harmony) as we have done for decades in our country,” De Croo said
- There have been a series of clashes between Turks and Kurds in eastern Belgium including riots
European bird flu spike due to record wild birds cases, EFSA says
- Outbreaks typically peak in autumn as migratory birds head south
- For humans, bird flu infected 19 people in four countries, Cambodia, China, Mexico and the US
PARIS: An unprecedented number of bird flu outbreaks among wild birds and their wide geographic spread are driving an early and strong wave of the disease in Europe this year, the European Food Safety Authority said on Thursday.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of farmed birds in recent years, disrupting food supplies and increasing prices. Human cases remain rare.
Outbreaks typically peak in autumn as migratory birds head south, but this season saw earlier cases, killing many wild birds, mainly common cranes along the German, French, and Spanish routes as well as a large number of waterfowl.
Between September 6 and November 28, 2,896 highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 virus detections — mostly H5N1 — were reported in domestic birds in 29 countries in Europe, with 442 in poultry and 2,454 in wild birds, EFSA said in a report.
“We are currently seeing an unprecedented sharp increase in the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus detections, mostly in wild birds,” Lisa Kohnle, scientific officer at EFSA, told Reuters.
Poultry outbreak numbers were similar to previous years but five times higher than in 2023, and almost double those of 2021. Turkiyes were the most affected.
“What is interesting for poultry is that in previous years those epidemics were characterised by a lot of farm-to-farm spread,” Kohnle said. “This year it seems we mostly have introduction from wild birds.”
For humans, bird flu infected 19 people in four countries (Cambodia, China, Mexico and the US), killing one in Cambodia and one in the U.S, EFSA said. All cases involved exposure to poultry or poultry environments.
Bird flu outbreaks in mammals were fewer than in 2022 and 2023, but remain a concern due to potential mutations that would make it transmissible between humans.
Kohnle said detections were likely to keep rising, although high wild bird mortality could prompt tighter farm controls and help slow the virus’s spread.
