ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five police officers were injured Sunday in a brawl between pro-Syrian and pro-Kurdish demonstrators outside the central station in Germany’s western city of Dusseldorf, according to local police.
“A brawl involving several hundred participants triggered a large-scale police operation yesterday afternoon. Former participants of two different assemblies (pro-Syrian and pro-Kurdish) had clashed on the forecourt of the main train station,” Dusseldorf police said in a statement on Monday.
During efforts to contain the violence, bottles and stones were thrown at officers, leaving five lightly injured. Police said they made several arrests and filed around 20 criminal charges for offenses including breach of the peace, dangerous bodily harm, and property damage.
Participants from both demonstrations had crossed paths at Konrad-Adenauer-Platz in the city center Sunday afternoon. After an exchange of insults, violence broke out, the statement added. Police are aware of at least one injured civilian.
According to the regional daily Rheinische Post, roughly 500 people had joined the pro-Kurdish demonstration, while about 200 took part in the pro-Syrian interim government rally. The Kurdish march was attacked by at least 50 people.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, and police told the newspaper it is not yet confirmed whether the attackers were directly linked to the earlier Syrian demonstration, though “a connection is possible.”
According to Rudaw’s reporter on the ground, the Kurdish rally was organized by Kurds from northeast Syria (Rojava) and southeast Turkey, though most participants were from Rojava. The demonstrators expressed solidarity with Syria’s minorities, including Alawites, Christians, and the Druze, and called for an end to hate speech targeting Kurds in Syria and the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army in Rojava.
Investigations are ongoing.
The new authorities in Syria - who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December - have come under repeated criticism by minorities for neglecting their rights and steering the country towards Islamic rule.
Recent sectarian clashes in the southern Druze-majority Suwayda province have left over 1,000 dead and displaced over 128,000. The fighting started last Sunday between Druze militants and the Sunni Muslim fighters. Damascus has been accused of siding with the Sunni tribes.
Three ceasefires between the Druze community and the new government in Damascus have collapsed, and although the latest one - brokered by Washington - appears to be holding, it remains fragile.
