10-01-2010
Mersin - On Friday Bulgarian Turks attacked Kurds with knives and axes in Mersin, because of a non-approved relationship between a Kurd and a Bulgarian female. The Kurdish young man wanted to marry the girl without approval of her parents. The girl was member of the tribe Cono (also called Haymatlos – people without a country), that came to Turkey from Bulgaria after 1918, short after the Armenian massacres. The Bulgarians went on the streets and shouted slogans as ‘martyrs will not die’, ‘the country cannot be divided’, and ‘end the PKK’. Many Kurds were wounded and their vehicles attacked. In the recent years there have been several ethnic riots in Turkey. On 5 January 2010, there was also a massive fight between Arabs and Kurds in the subdistrict Akdeniz of Mersin. During New Year’s Eve, 1,000 residents of Manisa’s Selendi district attacked Roma neighborhoods, stoning their homes and demolishing their stores in the aftermath of a brief brawl allegedly over cigarette smoking at a coffeehouse in the area reports Today’s Zaman (Photo: DIHA) © Rudaw
