German police raid PKK-affiliated organization NAV-DEM

BERLIN (AA) - Police raided a PKK-affiliated organization in Hannover, central Germany, on Thursday after violent protests by members of the terror group.

Public Prosecutor’s Office said police searched the office of PKK-affiliated organization NAV-DEM in Hannover on suspicion of support for terrorism.

“Several people are suspected of supporting PKK’s illegal structures in Germany, and recruiting Kurdish youth for the PKK,” Frank Padberg, spokesman of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Luneburg, told Bild newspaper.

The PKK terrorist group has been banned in Germany since 1993 but it is still active with nearly 14,000 followers, according to the country’s domestic intelligence agency, BfV.

NAV-DEM organized various protests across the country, since Jan. 20 to protest against Turkey’s counterterrorism operation in northwestern Syria.

The PKK-affiliated groups and far-left organizations claimed responsibility for more than two dozens of attacks which targeted Turkish mosques, associations and shops in various cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Aachen.

Turkey has long criticized German authorities for tolerating PKK activities in the country and pressured Berlin to take stricter measures against the propaganda, recruitment and fundraising activities of the group.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years and has been responsible for the death of nearly 40,000 people, including those of women and children.