Monitoring Desk
BERLIN: Sympathizers of the PYD/PKK terror organisation vandalized a mosque in Hannover, central Germany on Monday, in the latest incident of anti-Turkish violence.
The assailants spray-painted pro-PKK slogans on the walls of a mosque run by the DITIB, a moderate Muslim organization founded by Tu-rkish migrants in the country.
Ali Tetik, head of the mosque association, told Anadolu Agency that the assailants also targeted his house, and spray-painted anti-Turkish slogans on its walls. The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it is still active, with nearly 14,000 followers among the country’s Kurdish immigrant population.
Supporters of the PKK, and several far-left German groups backing them, have organised radical and violent protests across the country since Jan. 20, when Turkey began a military operation against terrorist targets in northwestern Syria.
At least 11 mosques run by Turkish-Muslim associations in various German cities have been targeted by the assailants.
Turkey has long criticized NATO partner Germany for not taking serious measures against the PKK, which uses the country as a platform for their fund-raising, recruitm-ent and propaganda activities.
Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens of Turkish des-cent whose grandparents mo-ved to the country during the 1960s.
