Terror group sympathisers target home of Turkish community leader in Switzerland

The home of the head of the Switzerland Turkish Society has been vandalised by supporters of the PKK terror group. It is the fifth time in two years that Şeref Yıldız’s property in Basel has been targeted. The latest attack took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning, 17 March, by three assailants who are all captured on camera. The men, wearing ski masks and boiler suits with hoods, are seen on the front drive of Mr Yıldız’s home at around 01.26 local time. They punctured the back tyres of two cars parked on the drive, and painted in large red letters the word ‘APO’ – the nickname of jailed Kurdish terror leader Abdullah Öcalan – across the ground floor wall and windows. The community leader delivered the footage to the police himself, and called on the Swiss authorities to apprehend and punish the perpetrators as soon as possible. “The security of our property and lives is the job of the Swiss security forces. We expect the perpetrators to be caught and receive the punishment they deserve,” Mr Yıldız told the Anadolu Agency. Mr Yıldız’s home has been regularly targeted by PKK sympathisers since he became President of the Switzerland Turkish Society in August 2020, with this week’s attack the fifth such incident. The previous attack on his home occurred on 25 November 2020, when vandals splashed red paint on his cars and front wall of his house, while also scrawling graffiti underneath the windows of his home.

Şeref Yıldız films the latest damage to his property after PKK sympathisers attacked his home earlier this week

Following the attacks, Mr Yıldız has told media that he is considering moving awayfrom his Basel home of 18 years due to fears for his family’s safety. There are over 120,000 Turks living in Switzerland. The Switzerland Turkish Society, which Mr Yıldız heads, is the country’s largest umbrella group, co-ordinating and supporting the work of some 100 member associations and 13 federations. The PKK is a Kurdish terror group fighting for an independent Kurdistan. The group is banned in Turkey, the US, the UK and across the European Union. More than 40,000 people, including women and infants, have died in PKK attacks across Turkey and abroad since 1984. In recent months, Kurdish parents in southeast Turkey have become increasingly vocal in demanding the return of their children, who were either abducted or groomed by the PKK to fight for them.