Fearing being attacked by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, residents in eastern Turkey can't even go to the mosques to pray. The supporters of the PKK do not allow people to go the mosques for dawn prayer and night prayer.
Meanwhile, it is hard for the men in eastern Turkey to grow a beard, because they have been accused of being supporters or a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
Ahmet Önal, who is a citizen living in southern Turkey, expressed that they cannot go to the mosque mornings and evenings. He stated that “Devoutly religious citizens are threatened by PKK. People who are bearded and praying are stigmatized as supporters of ISIL. We learned that especially in Silvan, the PKK interfere and don't allow the community to go to the mosque.”
“I cannot go to pray sometimes due to anxiety and fear,” said Ahmet Talay from the community.
The president of the Şırnak branch of Diyanet-Sen, the union of religious officials, Nurettin Tatar stated that, “People in this region are faithful; however, there is a dramatic decrease in the amount of the community. People talk about the rumor of bombs occurring in mosques. It is enraging the people. ” Tatar emphasized that PKK militants especially target pious people and even imams can't recite the Azan in some mosques.
Also on August 7, PKK terrorists attacked a mosque in the Kornwestheim town of Germany's Baden-Württemberg State and its social complex. The mosque belongs to the European branch of the Turkish-Islamic Union. The militants broke the windows of the social complex building belonging to the mosque and left graffiti on the walls, which read "PKK and YDG-H." Speaking after the incident, the president of the European branch of the Turkish-Islamic Union, Ihsan Oner, said that such activities are conditioned by the positive attitude of German politicians and the public towards the PKK.
The PKK is an armed militant group that has been carrying out terror attacks mostly in southeastern Turkey, since the early 1980s.The group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, NATO, the U.S., and EU.
