Overview
- Several hundred demonstrators gathered Saturday at Amsterdam’s Leidseplein to call for peace in Rojava and planned to march to the Dam.
- Protesters waved Kurdish flags and carried banners with slogans including “Terrorist Turkije” and labels calling Syria’s president a “terrorist” or “jihadist.”
- On Friday evening, a pro-Kurdish march moved from Amsterdam Centraal to the Dam under heavy police escort and grew to hundreds, with an emotional but nonthreatening atmosphere reported.
- The security designation took effect at 16:00 Friday around Centraal and the Dam, authorizing preventive searches as riot police, officers with shields, and dozens of vans deployed.
- Police said no counter-demonstration had materialized in the city center by Friday night, and a separate rally at Rotterdam Centraal involved physical violence against a passerby, according to a spokesperson.