February 17, 1999

Top Kurd's Arrest Unleashes Rioting All Across Europe

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

OME -- Enraged by the capture of the foremost Kurdish rebel leader, protesters stormed diplomatic
posts throughout Europe on Tuesday, taking hostages and setting fires -- and in some cities, even
setting themselves on fire.

With what seemed like extraordinary coordination, Kurds in Paris,
Moscow, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Bern and more than a dozen other
cities as far away as Sydney went on rampages of rage and protest over the
arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers Party. Although
there was no clear evidence that the protests were orchestrated, Kurds held
rallies, seized consulates, battled police and threatened mass suicides.

By the end of the day, many hundreds of Kurds had been arrested, and
most of the almost two dozen hostages had been released. At least three
Kurds in European cities had set themselves on fire, including a 17-year-old
girl in Germany, who like the others was seriously injured.

The Kurds in Europe did not focus their anger on Turkey, which captured
Ocalan in Nairobi, Kenya, late on Monday. Instead, they turned their rage
on Greece, which at least for a while had provided him shelter, and on
Kenya -- the two countries they believed betrayed him in the end.

The Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, apparently had been providing
Ocalan with a place to hide after he was forced to leave Italy last month.
Government officials in both Athens and Nairobi nervously denied being the
ones who actually turned Ocalan over to Turkish security forces.

In Istanbul, Turkey, about 1,000 Kurds marched through a Kurdish
neighborhood, setting cars on fire. But there were also demonstrations of joy in Turkey by other Turks,
who view Ocalan as a terrorist.

There are more than 20 million Kurds in Turkey and nearby countries, who have long suffered persecution
by successive governments of countries in which they live. Ocalan has led a 14-year often-violent guerrilla
movement for Kurdish self-rule and civil rights in Turkey, which has been met with violent repression by
the government.

The streets of Athens were relatively quiet on Tuesday, perhaps
because Greek police rounded up more than 350 Kurds
preemptively early in the morning and held them in an abandoned
army camp. In the evening, under tight security, a rally of Greeks
and Kurds in support of Ocalan took place in downtown Athens
without incident.

Europe had no such early warning, though. Nations that had sought
to avoid getting drawn into the dispute between Kurdish separatists
and the Turkish government, fearing a backlash of violence in their
own countries, were engulfed by the crisis anyway.

In Vienna, Kurdish protesters took the Greek ambassador to Austria
and his wife hostage in their embassy, while others set fire to the
Kenyan Embassy there.

In the Netherlands, where Ocalan had hoped to go after leaving
Kenya, by some reports, about 150 Kurds stormed the Greek
ambassador's residence in the Hague about 5 a.m. and took three
hostages, including the ambassador's wife and their 8-year-old son.
1/8They were released early Wednesday, Reuters reported. Riot
policemen had tried earlier to force their way into the building,
unsuccessfully.)

In Bonn, Germany, protesters took two hostages at the Kenyan
Embassy and another at the Greek Embassy. In Leipzig, protesters
took three people hostage at the Greek consulate but later released
them.

"These attacks weren't really organized," said Mehmet Atac, a
28-year-old Kurd who was among several hundred who stood vigil
outside the Greek consulate in Frankfurt this afternoon after Kurds
occupied it. "We heard news reports that Ocalan had been arrested,
and we all started calling each other to see what we should do. It
was one person talking to another and to another."

There were also less forceful, but equally fervent, marches by
chanting demonstrators outside United Nations buildings in Geneva
and other European cities and at the gates of the Council of Europe
headquarters in Strasbourg, France.

By late morning, a spokesman a group that calls itself the Kurdish
Parliament in exile issued a statement asking demonstrators in
Europe to desist. Some did.

Protesters in Moscow walked out of the Greek Embassy at midday
and surrendered to Russian police. Fourteen men and two women
who occupied the Kenyan Embassy in Paris for more than three
hours, threatening to immolate themselves and their hostages,
surrendered quietly to the Paris police. And by evening, French
police had liberated all occupied consulates and embassies in their
nation. But in other places, many others said they would not give
up.

"We will stay here until we get some answers from the Greek
authorities," one of the Kurds occupying the Greek Embassy in
London told a British radio station. "We are not representing
anyone, but I can tell you that we have support" from the Kurdistan
Workers Party, Ocalan's group.

Police surrounded that embassy after an estimated 50 Kurdish
protesters broke into the building about 2:30 a.m. and held a
custodian hostage.

Outside, as many as 600 demonstrators held back by steel
barricades fought briefly with police, who used dogs and
truncheons to quell the violence. One Kurdish woman set herself on
fire and was badly injured before a police officer could put out the
flames with a fire extinguisher.

Another of the Kurds inside the embassy, who gave his name only
as Ofter, told reporters by telephone: "We are completely
committed. We will do anything if we are made to leave. The
protesters inside are ready to burn themselves or throw themselves
out of the windows if the police try to break in. We will stay here
for as long as it takes."

Germany, which had refused to issue an extradition order for
Ocalan last November because officials feared it would provoke the
very kind of violence that sprang up on Tuesday, was not spared
despite all its caution. About 500,000 Kurds live in Germany,
including 10,000 in Frankfurt. Police and demonstrators battled in
nine German cities, from Leipzig to Stuttgart.

Otto Schily, the German interior minister, pleaded with the Kurds to
leave the various consulates peacefully. Police in Frankfurt used
truncheons and water cannons to subdue Kurds who were turning
over cars. Between 100 and 200 demonstrators were arrested there
after clashes with police this morning, and hundreds more were
arrested in Stuttgart.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the '60s-era French student radical who is now
a representative of the Green Party in the European Parliament,
arrived in Frankfurt late Tuesday afternoon to act as a mediator.
Police had cordoned off the street where the Greek consulate is
situated and surrounded the building with trucks, video cameras
and even water cannons. But they also allowed more than a
hundred Kurdish demonstrators to remain in front of the occupied
building and to sing protest songs.

In the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl set
herself on fire and was taken to the hospital with severe burns.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sought on Tuesday to distance
Germany from the Ocalan affair. "This is a matter that only affects
the countries involved -- those that extradited him and Turkey," he
said. "The German government is not dealing with this matter."

For months, Ocalan had appealed to European countries for
political asylum or an international trial that would allow him to
avoid being deported to Turkey, where he could face the death
penalty. Turkey applied intense pressure, and Syria, Russia and
finally Italy expelled him. Ocalan was unable to find harbor
elsewhere in Europe and ended up in Kenya.

About 12 million Kurds live in Turkey, most in the poor
southeastern region. Kurds share a common language, related to
Persian, and many are Muslims.

Kurds were promised a homeland in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres,
which carved up Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, fought to
regain the land, destroying plans for a Kurdish state. There have
been numerous Kurdish revolts since.

In Turkey, Kurds are not recognized as a minority. Recognized
minorities have the right to teach in their respective languages. A
ban imposed by Turkey's last military government on the use of
Kurdish in unofficial settings was lifted in 1991, but Kurdish is
illegal in broadcasts and in educational or political settings. A court
case to ban Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party is under way.

On Tuesday, as 30 protesters surrendered four hours after
storming the Greek consulate in Milan, Italy, and holding six people
hostage, including the consul, the Italian government implored
Turkey to give Ocalan a fair trial. Italy had refused to extradite him
to Turkey last November, citing a law that bans Italy from
extraditing prisoners to countries that use capital punishment.

Walter Veltroni, leader of the largest party in Italy's center-left
government, warned Turkey on Tuesday not to apply the death
penalty, saying, "That would place Turkey irretrievably outside
Europe."