COLOGNE, Germany
Members of Germany's right-wing pro-North Rhine-Westphalia Party are holding a protest demonstration near Lanxess Sports Arena, where Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to participate in anniversary celebrations of the Union of European Turkish Democrats, a Cologne-based non-governmental lobbying group.
A group of 20 members of the pro-North Rhine-Westphalia Party Party chanted racist slogans on a loudspeaker from a minibus parked in front of Cologne Messe Deutz Train station.
"Islam does not belong to Germany," a spokesperson for the group said, and "Germany does not need Turks and immigrants."
A group of Turks and Germans reacted to the slurs, and the quarrel between the two groups ended with police intervention. Some of those involved in the brawl were arrested by the police.
A Turkish woman holding a Turkish flag approached the pro-North Rhine-Westphalia Party demonstrators and expressed distress.
Germans in the area chanted, "Nazis out" and "Get out of here Nazis."
The Turkish prime minister was welcomed with roses when he arrived at his hotel from Cologne Military Airbase.
aa.com.tr/en
