Germany to Oppose Turkish-Kurdish Conflict Escalation With Legal Means

The federal states of Germany have all necessary legal means at their disposal to oppose escalation of the conflicts between ethnic Turks and Kurds in the country, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — On Saturday, pro-Kurdish protesters clashed with activists of Turkish origin that held demonstrations organized by the European New Turks Committee in several German major cities in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul.

"Germany is a mirror and sounding board of conflicts between Turks and Kurds that Turkey has been seeing since 1980s. As far as these conflicts emerge in Germany… the federal states will have all the necessary instruments to oppose them with the legislation [ensuring peaceful demonstrations] and criminal laws," the spokesperson said.

Germany is currently home to almost one million ethnic Kurds and up to 2.8 million ethnic Turks.

Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 as fighting between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish pro-independence organization considered to be terrorist by Ankara, and the Turkish army resumed. Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews in Kurdish-populated towns, preventing civilians from fleeing the regions where the military operations are taking place.