Mob attack on dance event in Turkey’s southeast Diyarbakır raises fears of organized intolerance.
In Turkey’s Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır (Amed), a cultural event organized by a private dance school in a public space was attacked by a group shouting religious slogans, resulting in injuries to several bystanders and participants.
An outdoor dance event organized by a private school of dance in the Kurdish-majority southeastern Diyarbakır (Amed) province of Turkey was violently attacked by a group on Sunday evening, resulting in injuries to several bystanders and participants.
Held at Tema Park by Swing Amed School of Dance, the cultural event turned violent when the group chanted “Allah-u Akbar” and demanded the participants leave. When the dancers refused to disperse, the group attacked, using chairs as weapons.
Several participants sustained injuries, with two taken to hospital by ambulance. Police and emergency medical teams responded to the scene following notifications from witnesses. The injured individuals filed complaints against their attackers.
Adalet Kaya, Diyarbakır MP from the country’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, condemned the attack on social media, expressing solidarity with Swing Amed and criticizing the attackers as reactionary and fascist. “We stand by Swing Amed and oppose those who cannot tolerate the diversity, youth and women of this city,” she stated.
Kaya also referenced the Turkish Hizbullah regarding the potential background of the attackers. Turkish Hizbullah, an extremist Sunni group not affiliated with Lebanese Hezbollah, emerged in 1985 in the Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey (North Kurdistan) a year after an insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkish Hizbullah are infamous for the bloodshed and terror it inflicted in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority regions during the 1990s and is rumored to have had connections with Turkish security forces, serving as a counter-guerrilla force against the Kurdish insurgents. Criticism mounted during the last parliamentary elections in which Hüda-Par, accused of being a modern incarnation of Turkish Hizbullah, allied with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Following the attack, some Hüda-Par MPs shared images and statements on social media, accusing the dance group of “perversion and disrespecting religious values”. Faruk Dinç, a Hüda-Par MP from Mersin, even called for legal action against the dancers.
Meral Danış Beştaş, a DEM Party MP from Erzurum, questioned the police response to the incident, suggesting that the attackers acted in an organized manner, implying possible deliberate inaction by law enforcement.
