It's understood that some institutions in Belgium made it their business to pass Turkish-origin politicians through a “genocide test”. Turkish national Mahinur Özdemir was expelled from her party in Belgium for refusing to recognize 1915 incidents as a 'genocide'.
Those who have visited Brussels would know that the city is decorated with monumental magnificent buildings. The history readers would know that every inch of those buildings are mixed with the blood and efforts of the Congolese. These monuments actually reveal the dark side of Belgium's past.
Belgium's King, Leopold II, divided “Zaire”, in other words, Congo, from the African cake as his share. In 1876, with a made up excuse like “Revealing and civilizing Africa”, he established the “International Africa Association”. King Leopold II got what he wanted from the “sharing Africa” conference gathered in Berlin in 1885. Leopold turned Congo into his private property and worked the black men in farms, mines and rubber factories by force. Besides, he also provided privileges for the American and British companies that could be regarded as bribes. As a result of “civilizing” Congo, Belgium became richer, while Congo became poorer and lost millions of its children. A great portion of the revenue from Congo's exploitation were transmitted to Belgium, while a small part was separated for Congo. Half of Congo's share was distributed to the police force of the colonists.
If a British woman, Alice Harris, didn't listen to her consciousness, nobody would have heard of the calamity experienced in Congo. Harris pictured Congolese people whose hands and feet were chopped diagonally for being “lax” during the rubber duty. This picture summarized what “civilization” meant. In that picture, there was a Black father having difficulty looking at his small children's chopped hand and feet. The colonists didn't consent with punishing the child, but they also punished the father.
This incident was not a discrete one; there were thousands of similar incidents. Due to the pressure from the public, the Belgium Parliament formed a committee to investigate the claims, however; nothing changed. Such that, an American writer, Mark Twain, said; “Whatever the Belgium kingdom was a year ago, it is still the same. The king is like a predator. The number of natives he kills in a year for profit is half a million”. It's being estimated that the number of people that lost their lives during the colonial period is between 4 and 15 million. However, the Congolese did not even declare war against Belgium, which colonized them.
Fifty=five years ago, in June 1960, Congo regained its independency. The leader of the “Congo National Movement”, Patrice Lumumba became the Prime Minister. Belgium and other Western companies didn't want to pull their hands away from Congo. Lumumba, after not wanting to give them what they want, was forced to approach the “Soviet Union”. Thus, they became “an enemy that should be annihilated”. First, they ripped the Katanga province, which dazzled everyone with its mineral deposits, away from Congo. With a coup d'etat supported by CIA and Belgium secret service, they distanced Lumumba from the Prime Ministry.
Lumumba had taken a long journey in the country and continued the resistance. However, he had been captured by a collaborator gang and handed over to the leader of Katanga; Moiz Çombe. On January 17, 1961, Lumumba had been executed and his corpse had been destroyed in barrels full of acid. In the following years, it had been revealed that the U.S., Belgium and Britain's secret services played a role in the “Lumumba Incident” since the beginning. The Belgium Government quietly confessed their responsibility in the murder in 2002; however, no one is mentioning millions of victims. Because the victims are Black.
