Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Stopping Iran... in Bonn

The local Kurdish population got together last Saturday in Bonn to protest recent attacks by Iran on northern Iraq. The section of Iraq targeted in the July attacks was the Kurdish autonomic region, Iraqi Kurdistan.

It was a unique sight to see the protesters spread across Münsterplatz, the home of the famous Beethoven statue. It's not often that you see protests in Bonn - especially right in the middle of town like this one.

The latest big demo I can remember here was when locals blocked the Kennedy Bridge to voice their protest to nuclear power in Germany. Of course the numbers were huge then - over 10,000 turned out.

The anti-Iran protests last Saturday gathered together just a few hundred supporters. According to the website yekkom, Kurds number some one million in Germany. The group says that Kurds in Germany still struggle to be properly recognised as an official migrant group.


The attacks by Iran on the Kurdish autonomic region is a "developing story", as CNN would say. It certainly didn't get much coverage in western media over the recent weeks. Here is a small report from Al Arabiya for those that missed the story.

No comments: