European leaders are struggling to contain tensions in the Turkish diaspora community after the failed coup widened the gulf between supporters of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the man he accuses of orchestrating the uprising, Fethullah Gülen.

Over the weekend, cities in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium saw large-scale, mainly peaceful pro-Erdoğan demonstrations outside Turkish embassies and consulates. But a number of violent incidents have laid bare the level of acrimony between supporters and critics of the Turkish president.

In Gelsenkirchen, western Germany, about 150 supporters of the Turkish president attacked a youth centre with ties to Gülen’s Hizmet movement, smashing two windows. None of the people inside the building were injured.

Gülen, an Islamic preacher exiled in the US, has accused his former ally, Erdoğan, of staging Friday’s coup to legitimise a crackdown on critical forces in Turkey.

Angriff auf ein Bildungsinstitut der Hizmet-Bewegung in Gelsenkirchen-Hassel

Almanya'da eğitim merkezine saldırı pic.twitter.com/3XqMlTYDaN — Oktay Yaman (@JournalistYaman) July 16, 2016

In Hamburg, where about 2,600 people rallied outside the Turkish consulate, a journalist said he was threatened and intimidated at a demonstration after protesters had identified him as a critic of Erdoğan’s regime. “They really wanted to lynch me,” said Adil Yigit, a journalist for Germany-based Turkish news site, Avrupa Postası. “I have lived in Germany for decades and I have never experienced anything like it. If the police hadn’t intervened and protected me, I would have been beaten up”, he told the Guardian.

In Beringen, Belgium, a building used for meetings by leading members of the Belgian branch of the Gülen movement was attacked and covered in graffiti by Erdoğan supporters on Friday night. On Saturday night, 500-600 members of the Turkish diaspora in Belgium descended upon the so-called “white house” and reportedly tried to set fire to the building.

Beringen, a town of 45,000 in the Limburg province, has about 7,800 inhabitants with a Turkish background. Approximately 10% are thought to be sympathisers of the Gülen movement.

According to Beringen’s mayor Maurice Weber, a clash on Saturday night was stopped in part due to 15 female members of the Turkish community forming a human chain to separate the two groups. Weber said no arrests had been made but that police were currently analysing CCTV footage of incidents on Friday and Saturday night.

Turkey’s failed coup has also raised tensions in the Netherlands emigrant community. A cultural centre in Rotterdam run by the Nida Foundation, which is affiliated to the Gülen movement, was pelted with stones for two nights in a row over the weekend.

“There are clear signs that these incidents are a direct consequence of the recent developments in Turkey,” the organisation said in a statement. In Zaandam, the headquarters of Animo, another Gülen-oriented organisation, was targeted on Friday night by a group of about 20 young people who smashed the windows and chanted pro-Erdoğan slogans.

Boycott lists are circulating on social media urging people not to buy goods from alleged Gülen sympathisers. “Several companies attached to us have received substantial threats,” said Ahmet Taskan, vice-chairman of Hogiaf, a network for Amsterdam’s Turkish diaspora business community.



In recent years the Dutch Turkish community has become increasingly polarised between supporters and opponents of Erdoğan. About 400,000 Turkish citizens live in the Netherlands, along with 100,000 ethnic Turks from other countries, making up about 2.5% of the population. Rotterdam’s mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, appealed for calm within the community at the weekend and said he was prepared to mediate between the two sides if necessary. “Don’t import the conflict: it’s bad enough that these tensions exist,” he said.

It is not the first time Erdoğan supporters in the Netherlands have been accused of intimidating fellow emigrants who speak out against the president. Earlier this year the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam sent out a circular ordering its nationals to pass on details of anyone who had insulted Erdoğan on social media, though it later retracted the letter, claiming it had been badly worded.

Controversy also surrounded the arrest of Dutch-Turkish journalist Ebru Umar at her family’s holiday home in Kusadasi in April, after she published a column calling Erdoğan a “megalomaniac dictator”. Umar was banned from leaving Turkey for three weeks and still faces charges of insulting the president.

In Vienna, where about 4,000 people demonstrated outside the Turkish embassy on Friday night, the foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz said: “In Austria we have a freedom to demonstrate and that’s a good thing. But I expect of people who live here that they are loyal towards their new home country and respectfully refrain from importing political conflicts into Austria,” said the conservative politician, who is in charge of foreign affairs as well as integration, in an interview with Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

Turkey’s crackdown on military personnel and judges in the wake of Friday’s failed coup has been condemned in unusually strong terms by the German government. “Germany and the EU have an unambiguous position: we categorically reject the death penalty,” said Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert on Monday morning. “A country that has the death penalty cannot be a member of the European Union. The introduction of the death penalty in Turkey would therefore mean the end of EU accession talks.”

The German government’s comments echoed similar remarks by the EU’s foreign affairs representative, Federica Mogherini: “No country can become a member state of the EU if it introduces the death penalty.”