Unknown assailants carried out a paint attack on the Turkish Embassy in Berlin overnight, vandalizing the embassy’s perimeter fence and nearby pavement, German police said Tuesday.
Security staff guarding the compound reported seeing about 40 people spray red paint on the embassy fence late Monday night, police said. The group also painted a slogan in white on the sidewalk in front of the building and ignited several smoke canisters before fleeing.
When police arrived at the scene, the suspected attackers ran into the nearby Tiergarten park. Officers detained two men, ages 19 and 20, while others escaped. Germany’s state security service has taken over the investigation.
German authorities said the motive remains under investigation, but the incident may be linked to Kurdish activists, according to police sources cited by Agence France-Presse.
The protest came amid renewed fighting in Syria, where government forces in recent days have pushed Kurdish fighters out of several areas in the country’s north and east. The advances included Aleppo, Syria’s largest northern city, which had previously been under Kurdish control.
Ankara hailed the Syrian government’s advances as a legitimate “fight against terrorism,” but Damascus’s campaign triggered furious protests among Turkey’s Kurds and others in Europe.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Berlin on Monday against Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, despite the postponement of his planned visit to Germany.
About 800 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in the afternoon, a police spokesperson said. No major incidents were reported during the protest.
Turkish Minute with reporting from Agence France-Presse