A video posted online by a mosque operated by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (in Turkish, Diyanet İşleri Türk-İslam Birliği, abbreviated as DITIB) in Garbsen, Lower Saxony, is causing caused widespread outrage. In the footage, preschool and elementary school children are shown shooting at “enemies” with wooden toy guns. In one scene, they drape a Turkish flag over a child who is seemingly portraying a fallen soldier, while three girls wearing headscarves mourn him.
The incident was first revealed by Turkish-born journalist Eren Güvercin on X. The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, which obtained the video, reports that the children were re-enacting the 1915 Battle of Çanakkale. The footage was recorded on March 18th, the anniversary of the battle.
The Islamic community in Garbsen reportedly published the images on social media themselves but has since deleted them. Commenting on the screenshots, Güvercin wrote:
“War is portrayed here not as a catastrophe, but as a heroic adventure. What we see there should deeply disturb us as a society.”
