Germany’s Turks, Kurds initiate blame game
Leading Turkish and Kurdish groups in Germany on Wednesday accused each other of "importing" a foreign conflict in the wake of Ankara's cross-border offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Skirmishes have erupted between the two groups in Germany since Turkey on Saturday launched its operation "Olive Branch" to oust Kurdish militia, whom Ankara views as a terror group, from their Afrin enclave in northern Syria.
Three million ethnic Turks live in Germany, the largest diaspora and a legacy of the country's "guest worker" program of the 1960 and 70s, as well as hundreds of thousands of Kurds.
Germany's Turkish-dominated Coordination Council of Mosques said the conflict had been used as an excuse to launch a spate of "attacks on Turkish mosque groups" in Europe's biggest economy.
"The fighting in northern Syria has been taken as an opportunity to incite against Turkish infrastructure and in particular mosques, and to import terror into Germany," it said in a statement.
At least two mosques of the Turkish-controlled Ditib group were hit in western Germany's Minden and the eastern city of Leipzig, said the council.
Windows of the buildings were smashed and walls vandalized, said the council, without naming possible suspects.
It also pointed to a brawl that broke out between Kurds and Turkish passengers at Hanover Airport on Monday, which forced police to intervene to separate the two sides.
"We condemn these attacks and call for calm on all sides," said the council.
The Kurdish Community of Germany, for its part, accused Ditib imams of calling for war against the Kurds in Syria.
"The believers are told to pray for a victory of the Turkish army in the war against the Kurds," the Kurdish group said, deploring the "instrumentalization of religion and mosques for a war".
(Source: AFP)
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