Germany arrests four Syrians over attack on Turkey-linked mosque

STUTTGART

Germany has arrested four Syrian citizens, reportedly aged between 18 and 27, on suspicion of carrying out an attack on a Turkey-linked mosque in the southern German city of Ulm.

The three suspects were near the mosque at the time of the incident while the fourth person provided the material used in the attack, the Ulm police said in a statement, adding that one of the men had confessed to the crime.

The suspects appeared at court in Stuttgart and were arrested on March 29 upon the request of the prosecutors, after which they were sent to prison.

The mosque, belonging to the Islamic Community National View (IGMG), one of the largest Muslim-Turkish associations in Germany, was attacked with Molotov cocktails on March 19.

The attack caused no injuries but minor damage.

A total of 37 attacks have taken place against Turkish institutions in 2018 in Germany, German newspaper Funke Mediengruppe reported on March 20, basing the figures on the German Interior Ministry sources.

It is believed that sympathizers of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are behind most of those attacks.

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993 but it remains active, with an estimated 14,000 followers among the country’s Kurdish immigrant population.

Turkey has long accused Germany of not taking serious measures against the PKK’s fund-raising, recruitment and propaganda activities in the country.

Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens of Turkish descent whose grandparents moved to the country during the 1960s.