Turkish minorities protest arrival of Erdogan

Organisations representing Turkish minorities have held protests at the arrival of Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on a three-day visit to Brussels. The visit comes less than a month before a snap election called in Turkey for 1 November.

Erdogan, as a visiting head of state, is due to meet the King and foreign affairs minister Didier Reynders. On Tuesday he will officially open the culture festival Europalia.

The organisations represent Armenian, Assyrian, Syrian-Aramaic and Pontic-Greek minorities in Turkey, who accuse Belgium of offering a “propaganda forum” to the “negationist” Erdogan in this, the year of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which Turkey still denies.

The organisations also claim Turkey will use the occasion of Europalia to “give a false reading of history” regarding the events of 1915. An edition of Europalia dedicated to Turkey 20 years ago had to be cancelled because of the repression of Kurdish protests in Turkey.

On Erdogan's arrival in Brussels, he was welcomed by an estimated 3,000 Turks on Place Stéphanie, some of whom had travelled from Germany and the Netherlands. During his visit he will discuss the Syrian refugee problem with leaders of the European institutions: Turkey has so far taken in some two million refugees.

However he will not be received in the city hall in Brussels, thanks to the divided opinions over his visit. And Brussels has also refused him permission to use the Palais 12 at Heysel for an election event. A similar event held in Hasselt in May, in the run-up to the election in June, was attended by 25,000 people, and is believed to have contributed to the turnout of Turkish voters living in Belgium  which helped bring Erdogan to power.