Greek protesters attack police, Turks put out fire

Yorgo KIRBAKİ - Athens

Turkey's consulate in Thessaloniki

Greek protesters have thrown Molotov cocktails at police units in front of Turkey's consulate in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, before Turkish staff put out the fire.

Protesting the recent detention of 14 anarchists, the group threw around a dozen Molotov cocktails at the police bus and the police booth located in the Hagios Demetrios district late April 17. 

The fire was put out by the staff of the Turkish consulate, which is adjacent to the house where modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881.

Police have launched an investigation to detain the unidentified assailants, who were around 30 people according to eyewitnesses who spoke to daily Hürriyet.

Ankara urges Athens to investigate attacks on mosques

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Ministry has urged Greek authorities to thoroughly investigate recent incidents of suspected arson and vandalism attacks at two mosques in northeastern Greece, an official statement said April 18, according to The Anadolu Agency.

The Turkish ministry said that it expected Greece to take all necessary measures to provide peace and safety to the Turkish minority community living in Greece's Western Thrace.

"Turkey requests Greek authorities to clarify as soon as possible the reason of these atrocious events, which occurred in sacred places for the Turkish minority of Western Thrace," the statement said.

A fire broke out at a mosque just before Friday prayers in Komotini city in northeastern Greece that left the roof and interior damaged. Trees in the garden of another nearby mosque in the same area were also damaged in a separate suspected attack. Greek authorities had earlier said they would investigate the incidents to see if they were acts of arson and vandalism.

An elected mufti at the Komotini Ibrahim Sharif told The Anadolu Agency on April 17 that it was not yet known what exactly caused the fire in the mosque, but there was suspicion that the incidents at both the mosques were related and that there were acts of sabotage.
      
"These two incidents cannot be a coincidence. Personally, I think that it was sabotage," the mufti said.