The independent Belgian media Bruxelles Dévie issued a statement condemning the raidsm by Belgian police on the premises of the Kurdish media Stêrk TV and Medya Haber in Denderleeuw, not far from Brussels. The raids took place on 23 April.

The statement said: “The raids, undertaken by the Belgian federal police, come at a time when numerous attacks have been committed against members of the Kurdish community since a Kurdish family in the province of Limburg was attacked at their home on 24 March. By carrying out these searches, the Belgian state, like its French and German neighbors, shows its intention to repress the Kurdish movement.”

The statement continued: “The search took place in the middle of the night, without prior notification to lawyers or representatives of the targeted companies and was therefore carried out in a completely illegal context. Moreover, in a very symbolic way, the raids took place during the international day of the Kurdish media which fights for its freedom wherever the Kurdish people are oppressed.”

Underlining that “according to various newspapers, the Belgian police raids were carried out at the request of the French state”, Bruxelles Dévie added that “France, in complete complicity with the Turkish state, recently deported three Kurdish activists to Turkey. In addition, at the same time as this police raid in Belgium, 9 people of Kurdish origin were taken into custody in Île-de-France.”

The statement said: “We would like to affirm our support for the Kurdish press which fights for the freedom of an oppressed people and for the propagation of a language and culture which is its own. The raids were one of the attempts to suffocate the Kurdish movement in Europe.”