Erdoğan’s “child soldiers” in Germany

A similar spectacle to that the Turkish President Erdoğan had with children wearing army fatigues has happened in Germany. In a DİTİB mosque in Herford, children were given toy guns, dressed in army fatigues and made to sing racist anthems.

A similar spectacle to that the Turkish President Erdoğan had with children wearing army fatigues has happened in Germany. In a DİTİB mosque in Herford, children were given toy guns, dressed in army fatigues and made to sing racist anthems.

Events in a DİTİB mosque in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia have people remembering the Nazi Germany images of “Hitler Youth”.

DİTİB, one of the most important institutions of the AKP regime in Germany, organized an event at one of their mosques and put Turkish children between the ages of 4 and 7 in army fatigues, later making them sing racist anthems holding toy guns.

DİTİB shared images from the event as if it was a good thing, but the footage was later removed as it caused an uproar among German politicians.

“SHOCKING IMAGES”

Governing Christian Democratic Union’s Federal Parliament MP from Herford Carsten Linnemann said the images were shocking. Linnemann said the incident was further proof that the Erdoğan government is trying to create a parallel society in Germany loyal to himself.

Herford teacher Birgit Ebel spoke to local press and stated that Turkish children even go to school in similar uniforms. Ebel said the education system must be stronger and teachers need to be equipped to keep Turkish-German children away from such racist spectacles.

Herford Mayor Tim Ostermann stated that he demanded a written statement from the DİTİB regarding the incident, but no such statement has come yet: “I was shocked to see the images. We can see once again that the desired harmony has not been achieved. Even if it was adults rather than children displaying this spectacle, it still wouldn’t have been acceptable.”

Ostermann said the video has been sent to security units so a criminal investigation can be launched.

With the start of the invasion attacks against Afrin, the 900+ DİTİB mosques had come back on the public agenda. These mosques operate directly under Erdoğan, and have received protests from the German community for holding prayers for Turkish soldiers and racist sermons, but the German judiciary had not launched investigations before.