Erdoğan’s “child soldiers” appear in Austria

Another racist spectacle similar to the one held in Herford, Germany last week where children were put in army fatigues in a DİTİB mosque has been put on in a mosque in Austrian capital Vienna.

Another racist spectacle similar to the one held in Herford, Germany last week where children were put in army fatigues in a DİTİB mosque has been put on in a mosque in Austrian capital Vienna.

The events in a DİTİB (an institution under the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate) mosque in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) were reminiscent of the “Hitler Youth” of Nazi Germany.

In an event organized by DİTİB, one of the AKP regime’s most important institutions in Germany, in one of their mosques, children aged 4 to 7 were put in Turkish military uniforms and made to read racist anthems with toy weapons.

The images were seen as the continuation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spectacle with children in military uniform, and it has since come to light that a similar incident happened in Austrian capital Vienna. In a mosque that belongs to ATİB, the Austrian version of DİTİB, a racist spectace was put on under the guise of a play titled “Çanakkale Martyrs”.

Photographs and video footage shared on social media shows little girls in headscarves with the Turkish flag on them participating in the racist spectacle. Other young children are seen giving the soldier salute and singing racist anthems, which has garnered reactions from Austrian politicians and government officials.

Austrian Social Democratic Party’s (SPÖ) Vienna MP Jürgen Czernohorszky demanded that the Youth Bureau handle the matter and launch a criminal investigation against the mosque. The governing Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) minister of state Gernot Blümel announced that relevant authorities have taken action regarding the images.