Amsterdam councillor brawls with Turkish youth

Amsterdam PvdA-council member Emre Ünver was in a fight with some Turkish youths on Sunday on the Leidseplein. It happened during a gathering of remembrance for a 15-year old Turkish boy who died last week, het Parool reports. 

Ünver said that he was attacked by some Turkish youths. He describes these youths as right-radical. This led to a scrape.

The council member is going to file a report with the police against the youths. A report has been filed against Ünver as well.

Some hundred Turkish community members came together on Sunday for a demonstration to remember 15-year old Berkin Elvan, who was injured in Istanbul last year when police threw a tear gas grenade at him. Elvan died last week after a 9-month coma.

Fethu Killi, fraction president of the PvdA, was also present at the demonstration and came to Ünver's aid. He tried to block one of the youths from reaching Ünver, and got a wound on his eyebrow. Killi is also going to the police to file a report. The police says that it will start an investigation.

Emre Ünver is flipping the story, telling it wrong, according to two governing members of the Dutch-Turkish youth federation HTGF. The organization publishes 'voting advice' for the elections.

"This time we said that people shouldn't vote for Emre Ünver. After our messages on the internet, he threatened us multiple times. Yesterday he came up to us when we had just arrived and beat us out of the blue. His physical violence was paired with threats and cursing to our address."

Policemen present were able to keep the parties out of each others' way, according to the HTGF members. "We were then referred to the closest bureau to file a report. We have submitted this together with a doctor's note of serious abuse."

PvdA spokesperson Jeroen Timmermans calls on the deposition of bystanders, among those PvdA fraction president from Amersfoort, Killi. "I saw the attack on Ünver happen. The young men came on the Leidseplein, yelling that they were looking for Emre Ünver. All of a sudden, they came and stood in front of Emre. Saw that they became physical in front of Emre. I tried to hold back one of the boys. He then turned around and head-butted me."

The police is saying that skirmishes are frequent with them, and is currently investigating it.