With an estimated number of at least 2.1 million Turks in Germany, they form the largest ethnic minority. The vast majority are found in what used to be West Germany. Berlin, Frankfurt,Hamburg, Rhine-Ruhr (Cologne, Duisburg and Dortmund) have large Turkish communities. The state with the largest Turkish population is North Rhine-Westphalia.
Turkish police have arrested a Lebanese-born man wanted in Germany for alleged links to a terrorist group that was planning attacks on U.S. targets, officials said Thursday.
The man was arrested in the western Turkish city of Izmir at the end of August and questioned by terrorism police, but was released by a court without charges this week because he had not committed a crime in Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. He was now being held in police custody awaiting possible extradition procedures to Germany, the agency said, without citing a source for the report.
Marcus Koehler, a spokesman for federal German prosecutors, said the suspect Houssain Al Malla was being held at Germany’s request.
Al Malla is suspected of undergoing terrorist training in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area in 2007 with the Islamic Jihad Union organization, Koehler said.
He’s been sought since 2008 on suspicion of connections with a group that plotted to blow up American targets in Germany that was foiled in 2007.
The principals in the main group were convicted last year.
Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, 24, both German converts to Islam, were convicted of membership in a terrorist organization along with Turkish citizen Adem Yilmaz. Attila Selek, another Turkish citizen, was convicted of the lesser charge of supporting a terrorist organization.
All four also were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and preparing an explosive device with the power equivalent to 904 pounds (410 kilograms) of TNT.
The defendants’ goal was to attack at least 150 Americans _ at pubs, discos and other public places _ ahead of an Oct. 2007 German parliamentary vote on extending the country’s military deployment in Afghanistan in an effort to influence that decision, the court found.
But German authorities _ acting partly on U.S. intelligence _ had been watching them and covertly replaced the highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide they were going to use to produce the explosives with a diluted substitute that could not have been used to produce a bomb.
German authorities arrested Gelowicz, Schneider and Yilmaz at a rented cottage in central Germany on Sept. 4, 2007. Turkey picked up Selek in November 2007 and later extradited him to Germany.
Turkey’s Vatan newspaper said Al Malla man was arrested after a raid at the home of relatives in Izmir, where he had arrived a month ago. It said he was carrying a fake passport and ID.
____
David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
via Turkey arrests terror suspect wanted by Germany – Taiwan News Online.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe’s revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga.
Seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions. Photo: AP
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country’s constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU’s bail-out machinery.
If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union.
The seething discontent in Germany over Europe’s debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. “Hysteria is sweeping Germany ” said Klaus Regling, the EFSF’s director.
German media reported that the latest tally of votes in the Bundestag shows that 23 members from Mrs Merkel’s own coalition plan to vote against the package, including twelve of the 44 members of Bavaria’s Social Christians (CSU). This may force the Chancellor to rely on opposition votes, risking a government collapse.
Christian Wulff, Germany’s president, stunned the country last week by accusing the European Central Bank of going “far beyond its mandate” with mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt, and warning that the Europe’s headlong rush towards fiscal union stikes at the “very core” of democracy. “Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies,” he said.
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A day earlier the Bundesbank had fired its own volley, condemning the ECB’s bond purchases and warning the EU is drifting towards debt union without “democratic legitimacy” or treaty backing.
Joahannes Singhammer, leader of the CSU’s Bundestag group, accused the ECB of acting “dangerously” by jumping the gun before parliaments had voted. The ECB is implicitly acting on behalf of the rescue fund until it is ratified.
A CSU document to be released on Monday flatly rebuts the latest accord between Chancellor Merkel and French president Nicholas Sarkozy, saying plans for an “economic government for eurozone states” are unacceptable. It demands treaty changes to let EMU states go bankrupt, and to eject them from the euro altogether for serial abuses.
“An unlimited transfer union and pooling of debts for any length of time would imply a shared financial government and decisively change the character of a European confederation of states,” said the draft, obtained by Der Spiegel.
Mrs Merkel faces mutiny even within her own Christian Democrat (CDU) family. Wolfgang Bossbach, the spokesman for internal affairs, said he would oppose the package. “I can’t vote against my own conviction,” he said.
The Bundestag is expected to decide late next month on the package, which empowers the EFSF to buy bonds pre-emptively and recapitalize banks. While the bill is likely to pass, the furious debate leaves no doubt that Germany will resist moves to boost the EFSF’s firepower yet further. Most City banks say the fund needs €2 trillion to stop the crisis engulfing Spain and Italy.
Mrs Merkel’s aides say she is facing “war on every front”. The next month will decide her future, Germany’s destiny, and the fate of monetary union.
For decades, thousands of Turks immigrated to the West, in particular Germany, in search of work. Now Turkey’s economic prosperity has young Turks abroad looking homeward.
Growing racism and continued economic problems in Europe and the United States are prompting many young Turks, from the diaspora and expatriate student populations, to find work in Turkey. A Turkish immigration specialist believes that 8,000 to 10,000 young people with Turkish backgrounds return each year. (Photo: Justin Vela)
Over the past few years, Ayhan Kaya, an immigration specialist at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, put the annual return rate of young people with Turkish roots at between 8,000 and 10,000. Many, according to Kaya, are fleeing “European economies in turmoil.” Some young Turks also feel alienated in Europe, where economic difficulties have helped feed “racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia,” Kaya noted.
One such European returnee is 26-year-old Senol Yelen. Born in Bünde, Germany, to Turkish immigrants, Yelen moved to Izmir earlier this year. With his language skills and knowledge of Europe, it took him only three days to find a job as an export manager at Bambi Mobilya, a company that makes sofas and beds that is looking to expand its European exports. “I have training in Europe. I lived in Europe. I know the German culture and mentality,” Yelen said.
Yelen prefers life in Turkey. “I see in Turkey big growth. Turkey is a country with many possibilities. Germany is not so good to work and to live in,” he said.
According to research conducted by Faruk Şen, chairman of the Istanbul-based Turkish-German Education and Scientific Research Foundation, continuing economic uncertainty in Europe and the United States is the major reason why young Turks, whether they are from diaspora communities or are expatriate students, are returning. “The young people and the academic people come back to Turkey because they see no chance in Europe,” Şen said. Older people, finding adjustment harder, are less likely to return.
Onur Kabadayi, 29, is an example of a student expatriate who decided to return. Originally from Ankara, Kabadayi had big dreams when he helped found a web company in Chicago in 2006. He had completed a master’s degree at Northwestern University and stayed on to run the company, Networked Concepts, which created interactive online video products.
In 2008, the global financial crisis soured investor sentiment. “The crisis started; the funds were draining,” he said. “We found some small investment, but never got enough.”
Casting about for what to do next, Kabadayi moved to Istanbul to hawk his skills and take advantage of his American education. After four months, he was hired as an Internet product manager at Hurriyet, Turkey’s largest newspaper. Today, he runs Hurriyet’s social media products and manages a team monitoring the country’s blogger community. He is still interested in running his own business, but considers the move a success.
Not all returnees are making a smooth transition. Born in New York to Turkish immigrants, Ferdi Ferhat Özsoy, 26, is among those who have struggled to find a full-time job.
A pivotal moment for Özsoy came in 2008, when he heard Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan boast of Turkey’s growing prosperity and regional influence during a speech in New York. “His advice I remember clearly — telling the people to become American citizens, to establish themselves. He said it was good to have a solid Turkish voice in the United States. But he also explained how Turkey had changed. They had brought inflation down, good stuff,” Özsoy recalled.
Özsoy, who had studied to be a history teacher, could not find a job in 2009 in New York. But he had always wanted to live in Istanbul. His family and friends in the United States told him he was “crazy” for wanting to live in Turkey.
After returning, he began studying for a master’s degree and found work as a freelance translator. “You gotta be a hustler to be in Istanbul,” said Özsoy, speaking in English, his words spiced by a New York accent. A permanent job has been more difficult to find. One interviewer was straightforward enough to tell Özsoy he was not Turkish enough, that he was too American. Other interviewers expressed disappointment with his resume. “They wanted to see big names, like Harvard. They say, ‘Why did you go to Brooklyn College?’”
Still, the statistics bolster Özsoy confidence that he will land a permanent job when he receives his graduate degree.
In May 2011, youth unemployment in Turkey dropped to 17.5 percent compared to 19.8 percent during the same period the previous year, according to TurkStat, the government statistics agency. The official figures additionally show that total unemployment fell to 9.4 percent in May 2011 from 11 percent the previous May. Critics say government unemployment figures under-report the number of people who are out of work. They also accuse the government of carefully crafting Turkey’s economic narrative in ways that conceal warning signs of an overheating economy.
Despite lingering suspicions, many of Özsoy’s Turkish friends back in New York are curious about his experience in Turkey and are considering moving themselves. He tells them the key is to have some kind of support. The building his parents built with money saved from working in the United States provides him with a place to live rent-free as he searches for stable work. “When we talk about the American dream I think my parents accomplished that,” he said. “This building proves that. If you don’t have something, it will be a problem.”
Editor’s note:
Justin Vela is a freelance reporter based in Istanbul.
via Turkey: Young Turks Abroad Returning Home to Chase Economic Dreams | EurasiaNet.org.
Turks in Germany have been the target of attacks in the past but if it happens again, they might not remain idle, says Professor Faruk Şen. He argues that a deepening economic crisis could increase hostility to Turks by the fall. There is also a risk that Turkish youth would react to such attack, Şen says: ‘Just one spark could be all it might takes’
After having lived in Germany for nearly 40 years, Faruk Şen has resettled in Istanbul. Şen told the Daily News at the headquarters of the think tank he heads that he makes frequent visits to Germany. DAILY NEWS photos, Emrah GÜREL
The deepening economic crisis in Europe could make Turks in Germany the target of a new wave of attacks, which may not go unreciprocated this time, according to an expert on Turkish-German relations.
Professor Faruk Şen, the head of the German Foundation of Education and Scientific Research, spoke with the Hürriyet Daily News following a deadly, racially charged attack in Norway, which coincided with the 50th year since the first large wave of Turkish immigration to Germany. In the last decade or so of these five decades, Turks in Germany have increasingly become the target of racist attacks, some of which have been deadly. Just one incident could trigger broader conflict, Şen told the Daily News in an interview.
Following the attacks in Norway you issued a statement saying that Turks in Europe could become the target of attacks as well. But won’t the Norway incident serve as a wakeup call, making the police more vigilant and society more conscious, reducing the risk of new attacks?
In Europe there is a phenomenon that I call “new racism.” It is more dangerous than the racism of the past. Islamophobia and Turkophobia have now reached the elites.
In the 1990s Turks were attacked by skinheads who had not even finished primary school, people without any future, with low IQ levels. But with the economic crisis in the 2000s, hostility against Turks has reached higher classes in the society. German Central Banker Thilo Sarrazin made racist remarks against Turks last year. He was thrown out of the Central Bank only three months later. But he is still a member of the German Social Democratic Party.
When Arab kids in France rioted six years ago following statements of then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, I said similar things would not happen in Germany because the situation with the Turks there was different. But now the unemployment rate among Turks has reached 30 percent. One spark could be enough.
There are signs that by September or October, the economic situation could get worse and I fear this could trigger new attacks against Turks. This fear is shared by a lot of Turkish nongovernmental organizations active in Germany. Even the interior minister of Bavaria said he expected similar events to take place in his state.
So if there are new attacks in Germany, the youth of the Turkish community will react, rather than remain silent?
I don’t want to exaggerate. But there is a risk. One incident can trigger the youth to react. Turkish youth criticized both Turkey and Germany for not showing enough sensitivity to the Solingen incident [where five Turkish women died in a fire started by Germans in 1993]. In the past, when Turkish youth went to nightclubs in Germany, they posed as Italians. But after the Solingen incident, they claimed their own [Turkish] identity. Also, some among the new generation make a lot of money, wear the most expensive shoes and go to the most expensive places. They are more demanding and aware of their rights. They don’t want to be excluded. Their parents were not like them. They remained silent.
And this recently empowered Turkish community is now facing a new racism that has gone main stream?
Racism exists even among elites. As they feel the negative effects of the economic crisis, they now fear their job can be taken by successful Turks. There is racism even among academics, who fear the competition from academics of Turkish origin. Until recently there were no professors of Turkish origin in [Germany’s] universities.
So while Germans are complaining about Turks’ lack of integration, they also fear the well-integrated Turks. Isn’t this a contradiction?
Yes, but there are not only winners among Turks there are also losers. Twenty-two percent of the Turks live under the poverty line. Crime rates among Turkish youth are higher than among German youth.
How do you assess the situation now that 50 years has passed since the immigration agreement was signed between Turkey and Germany?
It is like a glass that is half full and half empty. On the one hand we have the winners. We have 144,000 Turkish entrepreneurs in Europe. The number of academics is on the rise. But on the other hand we have the losers in the ghettos.
In your statement following the Norway incident you made a call on the government. What is your expectation from Turkey?
Turkey has become very sensitive as far as its foreign policy is concerned. Turkey takes sides when something happens in Libya or Syria. I believe Turkey should be a party when it comes to the problems of Turks in Germany. It should be more sensitive and ask the German government to protect the Turkish community. Turkish ambassadors in European countries should meet and discuss measures in case Turks in Europe become targets of attacks.
But every time the Turkish prime minister goes to Germany, his messages spark crisis.
Following the death of nine Turks in a fire in Ludwighafen in 2008, we called on German Chancellor Merkel to gather the representatives of the Turks and talk about measures. She did not listen to us. Then Turkish PM came to address the Turks in the city. If you don’t protect your citizens, because at least 1 million of the nearly 3 million Turks have German citizenship, then it is normal for the Turkish PM to come and speak out. I endorse the messages he gave in Germany.
WHO IS FARUK SEN?
A major figure in the field of Turkish-German relations, Professor Faruk Şen established himself in Germany in the 1970s and returned to Turkey nearly a year ago. After studying management and working at Bamberg and Essen universities, Şen established the Foundation of Turkey Research Center in Bonn in 1985 and has focused since then on Turkish communities in Europe. He is currently the director of the board of the German Foundation of Education and Scientific Research and works actively for the establishment of a Turkish-German university. Professor Şen has written several books and articles on economics, social sciences and immigration in three languages, including English.
Raise the topic of Turkey’s EU accession these days and most people will look at you pityingly. Didn’t you read the news about Greece’s narrow escape and the ongoing uncertainty about the euro, they might ask. Or did you miss the latest spectacular growth figures on the Turkish economy? Why would Turkey want to join a union that is going through an existential crisis while the country is performing so well on its own?
Even prominent Europeans like former NATO supremo and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana admit that Europe is in danger of becoming a museum, occupied by a shrinking population that is growing older each decade but still does not want to accept that joining forces with young and dynamic countries like Turkey is necessary for its own survival.
When you think, on top of that, of the rise of Islamophobia in several European countries, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the EU has given up on Turkey and that Turkey should, therefore, forget about the EU and look for other options.
My advice would be not to jump to conclusions. The EU has survived similar crises before, the Turkish economy is not as robust as some claim and, most importantly, many Europeans know very well that it is in their own long-term interests for the EU and Turkey to get together.
Last Tuesday evening I was present at an occasion that proves the last point. In Essen, the center of the Ruhr area, one of the industrial heartlands of Germany, Güler Sabancı, head of Sabancı Holding, delivered the annual Mercator lecture. Stiftung Mercator is one of the largest private foundations in Germany, named after the famous German cartographer and cosmographer Gerhard Mercator. It is a name that is associated with global thinking, scientific precision and entrepreneurship. According to the founders, Mercator’s life also symbolizes the significance of intercultural and interreligious tolerance, values that the foundation supports. Stiftung Mercator was founded by the Schmidt family, one of the main shareholders of the highly successful Metro Group, also known in Turkey for its supermarkets and electronics retailers.
In her speech Sabancı stressed the need for a common German-Turkish approach to global challenges such as climate change, the turbulent global economy and political instability in the region. The two countries are closely connected economically and demographically with around 2.7 million people of Turkish origin living in Germany. Both states are doing well and feel confident about their future. At the same time, Sabancı underlined, we have all become much more interdependent than two or three decades ago. For instance, both Germany and Turkey have an interest in Greece’s recovery because the European and world economy as a whole could be threatened and that would affect all of us.
Güler Sabancı also used her speech to announce the decision of Stiftung Mercator and Sabancı University to launch a strategic and long-term cooperation that will be implemented by the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC). The partnership will focus on three core areas: climate change, education and a common German-Turkish approach to the future of Europe and EU-Turkey relations.
After Europe and China, Turkey will be the third region or country that Mercator will focus on because they believe these are crucial areas for Germany in a globalized world. This decision shows how key economic and intellectual players in Germany look at Turkey. They have to accept that the present German government is not very keen on Turkey’s accession to the EU. They realize that it might take some time before Turkey will join. But they know very well that it is in Germany’s and Turkey’s long-term interest to strengthen the ties that already bind them together. In the globalized world of the 21st century, even big players like Germany and Turkey are well advised to focus on their common interests, be it energy security or stable and democratic neighbors. As Sabancı put it when speaking about Turkey’s relations with the EU: “Governments come and go. Relationships remain. And they get better.”
