Turkish nationalists have marched through a major Germany city, allegedly inciting sectarian hatred towards Kurds and chanting: “With Allah’s help, we shall conquer you”.
The 400-strong group was identified as the Grey Wolves Pan-Turkist group, which has a long history of terrorist violence and political killings.
Fascism is criminalised in Germany, yet authorities appear to tolerate it from Turkish migrants. Left wing ‘Anti-fascists’ claimed the openly fascist march was “too dangerous” for them counter.
Police were forced to use batons and pepper spray to subdue the nationalists after they clashed with Kurdish activists.
The marched was through the city of Duisburg, West Germany on Easter Saturday, ostensibly against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the militant left-wing Kurdish separatist group.
However, the demonstration was also an “attempt to carry Turkish-Kurdish conflict to Germany” Der Westen reports.
Chants of, “The martyrs are immortal, the motherland is indivisible”, and, “We rebuilt Germany”, were heard along the march.
“On Duisburg Streets it’s time to get off…… For our martyrs…. This is their push against PKK”, announce a local Grey Wolves supporting group on Facebook prior to the event.
As an organisation, the Grey Wolves agitate for an empire incorporating all Turkic peoples from Central Asia to the Balkans.
They are the “unofficial militant arm” or “paramilitary and terrorist wing” of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party, which has been variously described as racists, ultra-nationalists and neo-fascists.
Under German law, any indication of fascism or ultra-nationalism and any organisation perpetuating such ideologies is monitored by the “Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution” and outlawed.
Immigrants and ethnic minorities implicated in fascism, however, are often overlooked.
Tensions between Kurds and Turks have been escalating in recent months, with section of Eastern Turkey descending into “civil war” and a number of towns being put under curfew.
The violence regularly spills over onto European streets. In September last year, the last time tensions peaked in Turkey, dozens were arrested and a bomb throw in Stockholm, Sweden; clubs, bottles and stones were used on the streets of Frankfurt, Germany; and two people died in Bern, Switzerland as the two ethnic groups “went to war”.