Germany: attacks on Turkish institutions
In Germany Turkish mosques, cultural centres and a vegetable store were hit by arson attacks over the weekend. German authorities suspect Kurds of carrying out the attacks in protest at Ankara's offensive in Afrin. But a Turkish newspaper suspects that other forces are pulling the strings here.
Never trust Merkel's Germany!
For Yeni Şafak the attacks are the work of conspirators within the German administrative apparatus:
“The German deep state continues to attack mosques and set them on fire under the cover of the organisation known as the 'neo-Nazis' and the PKK. In the past month and a half the PKK has been given more and more free rein. ... And that even though following Prime Minister Yıldırım's visit to Germany last month our media published the headline 'New Era in Relations with Germany'! What is that supposed to mean? This new era means that the officially-protected PKK will now be able to set more mosques on fire! ... Merkel's Germany must never be trusted! Particularly now that relations between Ankara and Berlin have been 'normalised'! The cowardly attacks organised by the German deep state will only multiply.”
Outrage does not justify violence
Nothing can justify the attacks, writes Ali Ertan Toprak, head of the Kurdish Community in Germany, in the taz newspaper:
“Mosques should be places of reflection and spirituality. The fact that many Turkish mosques - in Germany of all places - no longer fulfil this role because Erdoğan has turned mosques into barracks, minarets into bayonets, domes into helmets and believers into soldiers [as Erdoğan said in 1998] does not justify violence. ... I can understand the despair and outrage of the Kurds over the global community's silence on the brutal attacks in Afrin, which contravene international law. I myself am outraged! Particularly disturbing is the silence of the German government, which tolerates the use of German weapons in this war. Despair and outrage, however, must not mutate into violence.”