A Turkish cultural center in the German town of Neuss received a racist letter featuring death threats, the head of the center said Tuesday.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Tansel Çiftçi, head of the Neuss Turkish Cultural Center, said that the center was targeted by racists for the second time in two weeks.
"A letter came in the mail today. It was signed with a swastika and ‘NSU 2.0' and included racist statements like 'We will burn down your mosques and kill you Turks,'" said Çiftçi, noting that members of the cultural center, as well as locals of Turkish descent in Neuss, live in fear and anxiety over the recent incidents.
NSU 2.0 refers to the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi extremist group uncovered in 2011 that murdered 10 people and planted three bombs.
"Two weeks ago, the windows of our building were broken in an attack on our association. Due to the frequency of these events, our members and those living here began to feel uneasy. We want the authorities to arrest those responsible and impose the necessary punishment," Çiftçi added.
He further emphasized that is it "unacceptable" that they are living in the middle of Europe and still receiving death threats.
Çiftçi also noted that the police had begun an investigation into the incidents after they filed a criminal complaint.
Germany has witnessed growing racism and Islamophobia in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of neo-Nazi groups and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
With a population of over 84 million people, the country has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country's nearly 5.3 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish descent.
