Members or adherents of the PKK terror group have increased to 14,500 in 2017, up from 14,000 in the previous year, domestic intelligence agency BfV said in its annual report. 

“PKK continues to be the largest extremist organisation of foreigners in Germany in terms of members and efficiency,” the report said. 

The terrorist group raised more than €14 million ($16.4 million) in Germany, and €25 million ($29.2 million) across Europe in various campaigns last year, the spy agency estimated.  

The BfV underlined that while the PKK had changed its name several times over the past years in order to give a positive impression, its organizations in Germany and Europe were still strictly controlled by the authoritarian cadres of the terrorist organization in northern Iraq. 

“Even though peaceful events remain the focal aim in Europe, violence continues to be an option of the PKK ideology,” the report said. 

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it has still managed to set up several covert organizations in the country, and used them for its recruitment, propaganda and fundraising activities.

Ankara has long criticized German authorities for not taking serious measures, but tolerating the activities of the PKK and other terrorist organizations that are targeting Turkey. 

The BfV report revealed that far-left terror organizations had also managed to build networks in Germany.