PKK attack Turkish group in Germany

BERLIN (AA) – Supporters of the terrorist PKK/YPG group attacked the Cologne office of a Turkish youth organization, TGB, in northwestern German early Thursday.</p> <p>A video posted on social media shows two masked assailants smashing glass windows of the building and writing “Greetings from YPG” on its walls.</p> <p>The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Internet and threatened to carry out more violence in Germany.</p> <p>Selahattin Gungor, who is heading the Youth Union of Turkey’s (TGB) Cologne branch, condemned the attack and called on German police to take measures to prevent more attacks.</p> <p>PKK sympathizers have recently called for protests in Germany against Turkey’s counterterrorism operations in northern Syria, and organized demonstrations asking for the release of the terrorist group’s jailed so-called founder Abdullah Ocalan.</p> <p>The terrorist group has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,000 followers among the Kurdish immigrant population in the country.</p> <p>Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens whose grandparents moved to the country during the 1960s.</p> <p>Ankara has long criticized German authorities for not taking serious measures against the PKK and its Syrian affiliates — PYD and YPG — which continue to use Germany as a platform for their fund-raising, recruitment and propaganda activities.</p> <p>The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU, waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, and has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children.