World, Europe

PYD/PKK targets German mosque with threats

Supporters of terrorist group PYD/PKK attack mosque in Erdmannhausen, southern Germany

23.05.2018 - Update : 23.05.2018
PYD/PKK targets German mosque with threats

By Mesut Zeyrek

COLOGNE

Supporters of the terrorist PYD/PKK wrote threatening messages on the walls of a mosque in southern Germany, according to a Turkish deputy who grew up in Germany.

The Erdmannhausen Mosque in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, run by the Turkish-Islamic Community National View (IGMG), was the target of the attack.

On social media, Mustafa Yeneroglu, a MP of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, decried the threatening vandalism, calling on the German government and security forces to show “zero tolerance” for such attacks.

The walls were spray-painted with the word "revenge," as shown in Yeneroglu's Twitter posting, and the mosque suffered other damage.

The PYD/PKK terrorist group and far-left groups have claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the Jan. 20 launch of the Turkish-led Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, northwestern Syria against YPG/PKK-Daesh terrorists.

In most of the incidents, German police have failed to arrest the perpetrators.

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,000 followers in the country.

Ankara has long criticized Berlin for not taking serious measures against the PKK, which uses the country as a platform for their fundraising, recruitment, and propaganda activities.

Germany has a three million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens whose Turkish grandparents moved to the country as “guest workers” during the 1960s.

Yeneroglu's family moved to Germany when he was a year old. He has dual Turkish-German citizenship.

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