Kurdish protestors storm European parliament headquarters

Brussels, Oct 7 (IANS/EFE) More than a 100 Kurdish protestors Tuesday stormed the European parliament headquarters in Brussels to denounce what they believe is European passivity in the face of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group.

The protestors, who for several days had staged demonstrations in a square near the European parliament, forced their way into the main entrance of the building, where Belgian authorities had deployed a heavy police contingent.

They also made it to the third floor, the busiest part of the parliament because it links the different buildings in the parliamentary complex.

A group of European legislators offered to meet the demonstrators, who were handed bottles of water in the chamber.

The Kurds were protesting the "massacre" carried out Sep 15 by the IS militants in the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobani, on the border with Turkey, according to a statement they distributed to the press.

Since then, the IS has been besieging the city, which appears on the verge of falling to the group.

The protestors said they were on hunger strike and added that more than 10,000 Kurds had taken to the streets in Europe to draw the West's attention to what had happened in Kobani.

They also urged the European Union "to support the Kurdish people against IS attacks and to urgently act to prevent a genocide in Kobani", from where hundreds have fled towards the nearby Turkish border.

"The Belgian and European governments cannot turn a blind eye" to atrocities committed by the jihadists, who "are well equipped and use weapons coming from the West", their spokesperson Keje Kotluk told the Belgian daily Le Soir.

Kobani, one of the three main Kurdish enclaves in Syria, has been the scene of violent clashes in the last hours after the IS fighters succeeded to break into eastern and south-western parts of the city.

--IANS/EFE

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