LEIPZIG, Germany – Hundreds have rallied in the German city of Leipzig in support of a Kurdish student from Syria who miraculously survived after being battered and shot in a street attack that many see as a hate crime.
The Kurd, who has not been named by police, was attacked Saturday while on his way home. Although he does not remember exactly what happened, he appeared to have escaped the attackers and was found by passersby several streets away. He survived after undergoing surgery and is reported to be stable.
Hundreds of Kurds and Germans attended a rally in Leipzig Tuesday called by the Union of Kurdish Students in Syria and Germany (UKSSD) to denounce racism.
Marcus Adler, spokesperson of the UKSSD, told Rudaw that his organization believes the attack on the student was a politically motivated crime. There have been several other similar incidents in eastern Germany over the past few months.
The reason for the attack is still unknown and police are searching for witnesses.
Ronya O., who held a speech at the rally, said that she and her compatriots believed it was Neo-Nazis who shot the Kurd. “Racism can be deadly! How else would someone understand a shot in the neck?” she asked.
Germany’s 650,000 Kurds are the largest Kurdish diaspora community in Europe.
Another speaker at the rally from a civil rights group called “Prisma” connected the crime to the German far-right movement PEGIDA and said police must find the perpetrators.
The Kurdish victim, who is from northern Syria, moved to Germany in 2014 to learn the language and study engineering at a university.
Eastern Germany attracts a lot of attention due to problems with right-wing movements and politically motivated crimes by Neo-Nazis. The German radical right-wing party NPD is even represented in several city councils and German state parliaments.
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