BRUSSELS
\nBelgium\u2019s 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 T\u00fcrkiye.
\n\u201cWe are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together (in harmony) as we have done for decades in our country,\u201d De Croo said.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s stop… these demonstrations of support for organizations classified as terrorist,\u201d he told reporters, referring to the Kurdish PKK group.
\nThere have been a series of clashes between Turks and Kurds in eastern Belgium including riots on Sunday, with subsequent tit-for-tat claims.
\nThe Turkish foreign ministry blamed outlawed \u201cPKK militants\u201d from Leuven for Sunday\u2019s clashes in Limburg. The Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) is proscribed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies including Belgium.
\nBut NavBel, the council representing Kurdish groups in Belgium, said a Syrian Kurdish family suffered a \u201cbrutal attack\u201d by Turkiye\u2019s Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist organization.
\nThen 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.
\nThe public prosecutor\u2019s offices in Limburg and Liege confirmed to AFP they were investigating the violent incidents but would not provide more information.
\nTensions 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.
\nThe 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.
\nTurkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to his Belgian counterpart Hadja Lahbib on Sunday night after the clashes, his ministry said this week.
\nPresident 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.
\nDe Croo said Belgium was \u201cfollowing this closely because there are other key moments in the coming days,\u201d referring to local elections in T\u00fcrkiye on March 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS Belgium\u2019s 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 T\u00fcrkiye. \u201cWe are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together (in harmony) as we have done for decades in our country,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-396756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n