Turks, Kurds fear tit-for-tat violence in Sweden

Turks and Kurds have lived peacefully side by side for years in Sweden - but two incidents within a week are fuelling concern of tit-for-tat violence, amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.

In the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka, a powerful blast at a Turkish cultural centre destroyed two offices on Wednesday evening, leaving broken glass and blackened walls.

It came just four days after a man was shot at a pro-Kurdish rally in the same neighbourhood southwest of Stockholm.

"I have many young people who are worried now, they say 'maybe the Turks will come to my house and shoot me'," said Yilmas Zengin, a 55-year-old of Turkish and Kurdish origin who runs the nearby Botkyrka Youth Centre.

"We worry, more than anything, that the violence will increase," he said outside the centre.
Botkyrka's Fittja neighbourhood is home to both Turks and Kurds where roughly 90% of the population is of foreign origin.

The incidents came as a surprise to most Turkish and Kurdish residents, and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman called them worrying. "We do not want any escalating conflict between different groups in Sweden, no matter who they are," he told the Swedish news agency TT.

Turkish ambassador Kaya Turkmen visited the scene of the blast and spoke to members of both the Kurdish and the Turkish communities. Several locals voiced fears that the blast was the result of a hand grenade, but police are still investigating.