Turkey says Nazi mentality more dangerous than terrorists

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said the Nazi mentality, and the idea that Turks in Germany are part of a barbaric nation, is more dangerous than the words he recently used when he paid a five-day visit to Germany at the beginning of December, calling German neo-Nazis “racist terrorists.”

Davutoğlu’s statement is part of a series of remarks Turkish officials have made to call attention to neo-Nazi killings of Turks in Germany in the past decade. Turkey vociferously demanded German officials investigate the racially motivated murders of Turkish Germans.

Germany pledged a quick and comprehensive investigation to discover how a group of neo-Nazis managed to operate under the authorities’ radar for years, allegedly killing 10 people and robbing a string of banks.

The group called itself the National Socialist Underground — a clear reference to the name of the Nazis, the “National Socialists.” The group is suspected of murdering eight people of Turkish origin, one with Greek roots and one policewoman.

The investigation into the group’s activities has spiraled into a national inquiry of previously unsolved crimes, including attacks in Cologne and Duesseldorf between 2000 to 2004, which are now linked to the National Socialist Underground. Those attacks injured more than 30 people, most of foreign origin.

Two people have been arrested: a suspected co-founder of the group — 36-year-old Beate Zschaepe — and an alleged supporter, identified only as 37-year-old Holger G. Two other suspected founding members, Uwe Boehnhardt, 34, and Uwe Mundlos, 38, died in an apparent suicide. Authorities believe the group might have relied on a larger network of “helpers” across the nation. Boehnhardt and Mundlos are suspected of killing themselves in their mobile home after police closed in on them after a bank robbery in the central city of Eisenach.

In the vehicle, police found the service weapons of two police officers who are believed to have been attacked by the group in 2007. A 22-year-old police woman was fatally shot in the head during the attack and her fellow officer was seriously injured.

Other evidence has been recovered from the house believed to have been torched Nov. 4 by Zschaepe, the same day the bodies of Boehnhardt and Mundlos were found. She turned herself in to authorities last week, but has refused to make any statement.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is tasked with tracking extremists, but each state has its own branch and its own police forces, which critics say has resulted in a lack of coordination that has helped the neo-Nazis remain undetected since 1998.

Davutoğlu, in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, said prejudice against foreigners is more dangerous than any racist terrorist. He added that it is possible to fight a terrorist or terrorist network. “It is more difficult to counter prejudice,” Davutoğlu told the German magazine. Davutoğlu said the Germans should work towards compromise and integration as much as Turks have, and the murders were against the values and goals of Germany and all of Europe. The Turkish foreign minister added that he had seen a serious economic crisis and increasing unemployment during his visits to Europe and that Europeans usually hold immigrants responsible for financial problems, leading to xenophobia. “I do not want to dramatize the incident, but I am really concerned. Politics should be prepared for such a situation,” he said.

via Turkey says Nazi mentality more dangerous than terrorists.