The riots in demonstrations by Kurds and leftists, which had been disturbed by Turkish nationalists and extreme right-wing opponents, continue to spread. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) announced on Monday that there would be consistent prosecution of every crime and a round table with the protection of the constitution and the integration fund. At the diplomatic level, the cause leads to an exchange of blows.
Turkey made harsh criticism on Monday that the Kurdish demos are taking place in Vienna for four days and have been approved by the Austrian authorities. Ankara now wants to talk to the Austrian representation about this. To this end, the ambassador had been “invited” to the foreign office, it said in a broadcast.
The Vienna Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the invitation of the Austrian ambassador to the Turkish Foreign Office. For reasons of scheduling, however, the visit was not perceived by Ambassador Johannes Wimmer himself, but by the embassy’s manager.
“Police hard work”
The fact that the PKK terrorist organization (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, note) and its supporters have been holding demonstrations in Vienna for a few days is further evidence of how little honest the fight against terror is, “the Turkish Foreign Ministry said further.
“It is by no means acceptable that these demonstrations will be used to propagate the PKK terrorist organization, look away when it uses its symbols, and target our country,” the Turkish ministry said. We also “condemn the hard work of the police, which has injured young people of Turkish origin and damaged businesses belonging to the Turkish community.” The Austrian authorities should take the fight with the PKK, which is classified by the EU as a terrorist organization, seriously and not use the topic for a populist policy, it says in the broadcast.
Nehammer rejected the allegations. The PKK is forbidden in Austria, and the way one acts against the far-right wolf salute, one also acts against symbols of the PKK: “We proceed with the same measure,” emphasized Nehammer. There is “zero tolerance for violence, no matter from which side”.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) called on Turkey’s official representatives to no longer call demonstrators supporters of terrorist organizations in the future. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced after a meeting of the minister with the Turkish ambassador Ozan Ceyhun on Monday.
“To call demonstrators supporters of terrorist organizations is a diction that we reject. The minister has urged that such statements not be made in the future. The right to freedom of assembly and expression is a great asset in Austria,” the statement said. The ambassador was also asked to “contribute to de-escalation” instead of “pouring oil into the fire”.
Last week, four days in a row, favorites by violent attacks by Turkish extremists on participants in the Kurdish demos and the police had taken place in Favoriten. The officials were also threatened from the left. Stones, firecrackers and glass bottles flew. The balance according to Interior Minister Nehammer: seven injured police officers and an injured service dog, eleven arrests, 57 notices and 220 identity checks. There is extensive picture material that is currently being evaluated, “every crime is rigorously prosecuted”.
It was “completely unacceptable” that Turkish conflicts would be carried out on Austrian territory, Nehammer was annoyed. Nehammer said that he had instructed the intelligence agency to conduct an intensive investigation into who was behind the escalation. “We certainly do not allow freedom and democracy to be endangered in Austria.”
Stronger police presence
The police are now more present in favorites. State Police Vice President Franz Eigner was surprised by the high, rapid degree of mobilization of the violent, predominantly young men. He spoke of a “phenomenon that (…) we have not encountered so often”. Namely, that a hard core of a few hundred young people can be ordered quickly and at short notice to where. Dozens of small groups have acted against the police. Owing to the “massive attacks” using iron bars, pyrotechnics and glass bottles, it was very difficult to protect the assembly.
Nehammer announced a round table with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Integration, the Protection of the Constitution, the Director General for Public Security and the Integration Fund. The Home Secretary also plans to report the incidents to the National Security Council.
Integration Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) confirmed that the Documentation Center for Political Islam should start operating this summer. The aim is to examine scientifically the networks and associations that are the breeding ground “for the extremist ideology of political Islam”. “Austria is not a venue for Turkish conflicts,” she said.
If violence is used, it is “over with tolerance”. It is not about general condemnation of people with a migration background, but individual migrant groups would isolate themselves, and there are also some attempts from abroad to exert influence. They would like the Turkish ambassador to clearly condemn the events, said Raab.
FPÖ wants to act harder
On Monday, the FPÖ called for more action against the left-wing scene. For example, the Ernst Kirchweger House (EKH), a center of the autonomous community, is closed, said deputy club chairwoman Dagmar Belakowitsch. Subsidies for Turkish clubs were also questioned.
From the point of view of the freedom activists, the violence in several demonstrations in the past few days has come from both sides. Belakowitsch therefore calls on the City of Vienna to check all clubs according to the law on associations, for example for prohibited symbols. The funding was also canceled, because both the EKH and Turkish associations would be “generously sponsored”, the FPÖ MP believes.
A “total absurdity” for Belakowitsch is that the green vice-mayor Birgit Hebein took part in one of the demonstrations. She can do this very well as a private person, “if she feels comfortable with it”, but without a political mandate, says the Freedom Party. The government “is obviously wary of what the coalition partner is doing here politically”.
Overwhelmed in dealing with the demonstrations locate the freedom activists in the police. The executive lacks support from Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP). When the latter announces more stringent procedures, one wonders what he has done in the past few days. The minister, on the other hand, was quickly there with the “Corona sinners”, Belakowitsch believes, “and he instigated his police officers there”.
Conflict between “fascists and democrats”
The SPÖ sees the conflict less as an ethnic one between Turks and Kurds, but as a political one between fascists and democrats. Vice-club boss Jörg Leichtfried pointed this out in a press conference on Monday.
Backgrounds and backers of the incitement to fascist violence must be investigated, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BAT) is on the move here. It also needed a right-wing extremism report to get to the root of the problem, he said. (apa)
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