Category: Germany

German Ambassador Says His Country Cannot Understand Closure Case Against Turkey’s Ruling Party

German Ambassador in Ankara Eckart Cuntz says :

“We cannot understand why a democratic party, which came to power with 47 percent of votes, is wanted to be closed.

I hope that every institution in Turkey is aware of their responsibilities about European norms and values, such as the Venice criteria, democracy, human rights, rule of law, and secularism.

We stand side by side with Turkey. We want a strong Turkey and we support its European Union membership.”

Turkish troops have been sent to rescue three German climbers who were kidnapped by Kurdish rebels high on Mount Ararat, an official said. The official, Gov. Mehmet Cetin of Agri Province, told the news agency Dogan that the climbers, part of a 13-member German team, were abducted late Tuesday from their camp at 10,500 feet. The 10 other Germans on the team returned to the city of Agri, Mr. Cetin said. The separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party is banned in Germany, where the authorities have arrested and tried suspected supporters.

The New York Times

Who Are the Jews of Europe?

The Istanbulian, Personal Chronicles of a Turkish Journalist, Emre Kizilkaya

Turkish professor Faruk Sen, the head of the Center for Turkish Studies Foundation in Essen, had been temporarily suspended from his duties for describing Turks as the “New Jews of Europe” in an article he wrote for a Turkish business daily.

In the article, he was passionately defending the rights of Turkish Jews, while making a parallelism between the current situation of Turks in Germany.

German authorities, were very quick to react. They were alleging that Prof Sen was insulting Jews, but actually the real intention was solely political.

So this was another cover-up, similar to “the ostrich dialectic” which is being systematically adopted by German authorities after every xenophobic arson in the country.

Social democrat Prof Sen was being a victim of such a political conspiracy, mainly organized by CDU politicians who can do anything to stop the staining of Germany’s image especially about its rising xenophobia, even when its all based on facts.

The comparison of Prof Sen was surely using an exaggeration to make its article’s headline more shocking, but when some opportunist politicians made him a scapegoat, it becomes a necessity for every sane people to defend him at all costs. Good that Jewish communities of Germany and Turkey have intervened to do it and now there is a chance that he would protect his chair.

As a conservative politician and the authority whose vote would be crucial for the fate of Prof Sen Armin Laschet, Integration Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, has already voiced his opinion: He wants to sack Prof Sen, but this can be changed.
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It is reported today that Britain’s first Muslim minister has used a similar expression.

Shahid Malik, the minister in the Department for International Development (Dfid), attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like “the Jews of Europe”.

Proving that the situation of Muslims in Britain in general is similar to Turks in Germany in particular, he says something important:

“Somehow there’s a message out there that it’s OK to target people as long as it’s Muslims. And you don’t have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye.”

Herr Armin Laschet should read Malik’s sentences and understand that if he punishes Prof. Sen, restricting his freedom of expression wrongly, there would be more blind eyes in Germany.

But even if Prof Sen is ultimately fired, I strongly believe in German courts which would most likely to reinstate him to his job anyway.