Syrian Druze and Kurds peacefully commemorated their slain compatriots at Vienna West Station – until an aggressive group of Sunni Muslim counter-demonstrators suddenly emerged. Hateful slogans such as ‘You pigs!’ and ‘Down with the Zionist agent’ were shouted. The police confirmed there was an unannounced counter-rally.
They lit candles, held a minute’s silence and simply wanted to demonstrate peacefully: On Thursday evening, according to eyewitnesses, around 30 Syrian Druze and Kurds gathered at Christian-Broda-Platz near Vienna’s Westbahnhof railway station to commemorate their slain compatriots. They were killed by Sunni Bedouins and/or government troops during the fighting in the Syrian region of Suwaida.
‘Stop the massacre of civilians in Suwaida’, ‘Even as a minority you have the right to express your opinion’, is written on pieces of paper lying on the ground. Some demonstrators – women and men of all ages – brandish Austrian or Kurdish flags.
But the peace did not last long. A participant in the registered demonstration told exxpress that the gathering was suddenly disrupted. “A group of aggressive men, many of them of Arab origin and obviously Islamist, joined us and began to insult and threaten us loudly. They shouted slogans against Druze, Christians, Kurds and other minorities. We were mocked, provoked and massively intimidated”.
‘Down with the Zionist agent!‘, ‘Any Sunni who doesn’t take part (in the disruption of the demonstration, note) is a traitor and not a true Sunni because of these dogs!’ or ‘You sons of bitches!’, shouted the counter-demonstrators in Arabic, according to a Druze woman who came to Austria 10 years ago with her family on a visa and work permit and had just completed her A-levels.
‘The counter-demonstrators increased in number,’ reports the young Drusin. Another video shows some of the protesters shouting in Arabic and raising their middle finger or a fist against the Syrian minorities. According to the demonstrator, some also shouted ‘We Sunnis will kill you!’ and labelled the Syrian minorities as ‘pigs’. It is noticeable that many of them are Foodora vendors. Some are waving the green, white and black flag with three red stars – during the civil war, it symbolised the opponents of the old dictator Al-Assad. Now the new Syrian government is hoisting the flag on its buildings and showing it during presidential speeches on Syrian state television.
“They weren’t political counter-demonstrators. They were simply people who didn’t see us as equals – they hated us. The hatred was religiously motivated, many of us were very scared. I stood there myself and could hardly believe what was happening in a country like Austria,” says the demonstrator. She was glad that many police officers were on the scene.
The Vienna Provincial Police Directorate confirmed to exxpress that the rally was lawfully reported and that ‘there was a brief spontaneous counter-rally by apparent Syrian government supporters’.