Tag: Turks living in Germany

When a majority of fellow citizens believe that the religion you follow is incompatible with their nation then you may be inspired to move elsewhere.

When you are less likely to get a job that you are as qualified as anyone else to perform because of the way your name sounds that may inspire you to want to leave.

It appears that after years of being treated as second-class citizens a large number of Turks are going back to Turkey. No doubt Islamophobes will be partying, but who will they scapegoat now?

In 1961, desperate to increase its labor force, West Germany signed an employment agreement with Turkey and launched a wave of immigration that continues to have repercussions today.

Now, after years of being treated as second-class citizens in Europe’s economic powerhouse, large numbers of Turks — descendants of the first wave of immigrants — are returning to Turkey.

In A Strange Land

Yucel Yolcu, 44, has a good life in Istanbul. He likes his job as a film director; his sunny apartment on a hill above the Bosphorus is alive with the sounds of guests and pets.

But when he thinks back to his early childhood in Germany, he’s amazed things worked out this way. His early memories are of being left on his own at age 5 while his parents went off to work in a German factory.

“It was a backyard of an old Berlin building, and I saw there were other black-haired kids like me … staying all the day in the backyard, and we didn’t know what we are doing there,” he says. “And there were other kids, blond, looking a little bit different, and we couldn’t understand each other.”

Some would argue that Germans and their growing Turkish minority never learned to understand each other.

Reasons To Leave

At first, the Turks believed they would soon be returning home with the wealth to start a better life. But as Turkey’s political situation was roiled by violent unrest and military coups, more and more Turks opted to stay in Germany.

Semra Guzel-Korver with the European Broadcasting Union has made two documentaries on Turks in Germany. She’s not surprised that a growing number of them are leaving Germany, now that Turkey’s economy is robust and growing.

“A lot of Turkish, especially young generation, come back to Istanbul and other Turkish cities, because … they cannot find jobs anymore in Germany,” she says.

“They finished the university, they know three or four languages, everything is perfect — but their name is Turkish,” Guzel-Korver adds.

She says the euro crisis has increased racism and Islamophobia.

Resorting To Gangs

Racism and Islamophobia are what drove some Turks in Germany to make a stand. They watched in dismay as a recession in the 1980s and the reunification of Germany after 1989 brought a rise in neo-Nazi violence against immigrants.

As the neo-Nazi attacks spiked in the early ’90s, young Turkish immigrants began to form street gangs and confront them. Al Jazeera’s English channel aired a documentary about the most famous of the Turkish gangs, known as “36 Boys.” In the film, former gang member Soner Arslan said organizing was a matter of survival.

“The 36 Boys, people think we’re dangerous and beat people up all the time, but the reality wasn’t like that,” he said. “We had a war here, and we had to protect ourselves. They wanted to kill us, and the German police and politicians did nothing about it.”

Coming ‘Home’

For decades, the Turks kept coming, but now the flow is reversing. One recent study concludes that some 193,000 Turks left Germany to come home between 2007 and 2011. The most commonly cited reasons were better job prospects in Turkey and discrimination in Germany.

Yolcu was a member of the 36 Boys gang (named after the postal code of a tough Berlin neighborhood where many of them grew up). But one day, he decided that he was never going to get work in films if he stayed in a drug- and violence-prone gang.

“I have to make a new start. I felt like I have to earn money with art, and all my friends were dealers. I mean, they are still dealing,” he says.

Yolcu wound up in Istanbul, sleeping on a friend’s couch and trying to break into the film business. It was around that time that he began a new, unexpected process of adjustment. For all his efforts to cling to a Turkish identity while in Germany, he now found that in some ways these Turks were utter foreigners to him.

He was surprised to find a Germanic desire for order welling up in him one day while walking down Istanbul’s teeming downtown thoroughfare, with masses of people jostling this way and that.

“You know, I can’t understand why all the people are walking like this! And one day I was nearly to cry, ‘Stop! You go right and you go left!’ ” he says. “I mean, I couldn’t understand why there is no people who says, ‘It’s too much people here! You don’t see it?’ ”

Over time, Yolcu grew to embrace the relative chaos of Turkey and now feels at home here. He also keeps an eye out for his fellow Almancis, or German-Turks, because he knows what it’s like to feel like a stranger in your homeland.

via German-Turks Leaving Germany For Turkey | loonwatch.com.

BERLIN (AP) — In gritty backstreets of Berlin and other major German cities, housewives wearing head scarves shop for lamb and grape leaves. Old men pass the time in cafes sipping coffee, chatting in Turkish and reading Turkish newspapers.

Associated Press/Markus Schreiber – In this picture taken March 15, 2013 women with headscarfs, a traditional dress for islamic women, walk between other people on a street at the district Neukoelln in Berlin, Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

More than 3 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany — the legacy of West Germany’s Cold War-era program to recruit temporary foreign labor during the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s when the country rebuilt after World War II.

What started as a temporary program has changed the fabric of German urban life — from mosques on street corners to countless shops selling widely popular Doener kebab fast food sandwiches.

Germany’s experience with “guest workers” offers lessons for the U.S. as it debates immigration reform, including whether to provide a path to citizenship for unskilled foreign laborers, or whether there should be additional temporary-only visas for such workers.President Barack Obama has urged Congress to begin debate in April after lawmakers return from a two-week recess.

Decades after Germany’s formal guest worker program ended in the early 1970s, the country is still wrestling with ways to integrate Turks — the second biggest group among the estimated 15 million-strong immigrant community after ethnic Germans who moved from the former Soviet Union and for Soviet bloc countries — into German society.

“When you bring people to work, it’s quite hard to tell them to go back one day,” said Goecken Demiragli, a social worker whose grandmother came to Berlin from Turkey in 1968. “That was the biggest mistake: to think that if you don’t need them, they will go.”

Initially, the Germans felt they didn’t need an integration path.

They foresaw a temporary program of rotating labor, where workers from Turkey, the Balkans and southern Europe would spend a couple of years on an assembly line and then go home to be replaced by others if industry still needed them.

But factory managers grew tired of retraining new workers every couple of years and convinced authorities to allow contract extensions.

Many immigrants, especially young Turkish men who faced grinding unemployment at home, opted to stay in Germany, bringing their families and building lives here despite discrimination in education, housing and employment.

Although immigrants could stay legally with government-issued residence permits, they could not apply for citizenship for 15 years, although the period has been shortened in recent years. Without fluent German, and state-supported language programs, many were unable to pursue good educations and well-paying jobs.

As a result, the Turkish community remains the least integrated immigrant group in Germany, according to the private Berlin Institute for Population and Development.

Immigration critics blame the Turks for refusing to abandon traditions of rural Turkey, failing to learn German and take advantage of educational opportunities. Critics note that more than 90 percent of marriages by ethnic Turks are to other Turks — in part because of cultural restrictions against marrying outside the Muslim faith.

Over the years, the existence of a parallel society of marginalized people speaking a different language and following different religious and social customs has triggered a backlash in a country which only recently has considered itself a nation that welcomes immigrants.

Neo-Nazis have focused on the Turks in their campaign against immigration. Next month, the surviving member of a small neo-Nazi cell goes on trial in Munich for allegedly killing 10 people — eight of them Turkish immigrants — over seven years. The cell allegedly got away with the killings for years because police assumed they were the work of Turkish immigrant gangs.

Thilo Sarrazin, once a top official of Germany’s central bank, wrote in a 2010 best-seller that immigrants were dumbing down German society and that Turkish and Arab immigrants were reluctant to integrate. The firestorm that followed forced Sarrazin out of his bank post, but his book sold over 1.5 million copies.

Others fault successive German governments for being slow to recognize the immigration problem and moving only in recent years to put in place programs to combat discrimination, provide German language training and offer a speedier path to full citizenship.

“The West German government should have devised comprehensive integration measures as part of family reunification policies but did not,” a 2009 study for the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “Consequently, integration problems began to take root in West Germany.”

In the meantime, an entire generation grew up feeling estranged, living in urban ghettoes apart from the mainstream and unable to take part in political life. Even well-educated Turks who have assimilated believe that stigma remains alive today.

“There’s this categorization … that you are not the same as the others,” said Demiragli, the social worker, who was born in Germany but did not get citizenship until she was 16. “That is a feeling that grows in you if you do not have strong parents who can support you and give you the feeling that you are still special.”

Overt discrimination has abated since the 1970s and 1980s when real estate ads in German newspapers contained phrases like “Only for Germans” or “No Foreigners.” But Turkish residents say subtle barriers remain.

“Now it’s more hidden,” said Bekir Yilmaz, head of a Turkish community organization in Berlin. “You look for housing, you make a telephone call, you can speak German well but when you stand in front of the landlord, they say, ‘Oh, the apartment is taken.’”

Yilmaz believes the problem has worsened since the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and the war on terror smeared the image of Muslims.

“The West had its enemy in communism but communism is gone. Now it’s the Muslims,” Yilmaz said. “The Turks here are no enemy. They have lived here for years, and their children born here. This has nothing to do with reality.”

German attitudes toward immigration and citizenship also proved an obstacle to full and rapid integration. Although attitudes are changing, Germany never perceived itself as an immigrant society like the United States. German society values conformity.

Unlike the United States, Germany does not automatically grant citizenship to anyone born on German soil. Even though the naturalization process has been shortened, it still takes years and requires knowledge of the German language and history.

In 2000, a new law granted German citizenship to German-born children of longtime legal residents. By age 23, those children must decide whether to keep German citizenship or their parents’ nationality.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has refused calls from Turkish and other immigrant communities to allow dual citizenship. Many immigrants are reluctant to apply for German citizenship because they want to hold on to their original nationality.

“I think we should have a dual citizenship here in Germany,” said Ayvaz Harra, a German citizen of Turkish origin who sells bread in a Berlin market. “My family has property in Turkey and I would like to inherit it. Right now it’s not possible.”

But others believe the core problem was the government’s failure to foresee the long-term effects of the temporary labor program.

“The problem here is that there is a picture of how Germans should live and if somebody is living differently, it doesn’t fit,” Demiragli said. “I think that in 20 to 30 years it will be a totally mixed community, especially here in Berlin. If we get over that 20 years, I think it will be a totally different situation.”

German authorities are not fighting rightwing extremists vigorously enough, says DW’s Baha Güngör.

With the NSU trial about to start, the accusation that Germany isn’t doing enough against right-wing extremism is gaining momentum in Turkey. That is a dangerous dynamic, warns Baha Güngör.

There’s a growing crisis of confidence between Germany and Turkey, and between Germans and Turks. Were neo-Nazis responsible for the fires in buildings primarily occupied by Turkish residents? Are German authorities intentionally excluding arson to protect right-wing lunatics? Did the Munich court plan to exclude Turkish media from the NSU trial? This endless chain of provocative questions has caused a variety of people – not all of them competent – to share their subjective answers with the public. And that in turn set off another wave of accusations and embitterment.

Baha Güngör heads DW’s Turkish department

The German public has to accept the reactions by Turks here in Almanya and government officials in Turkey. The pain still stings, the families of the eight Turks and one Greek who were killed by the terror group NSU are still traumatized. The investigating authorities -including the highest ranking government offices on the federal and state level – had excluded a possible neo-Nazi connection to the killings for years, ignored clues, shredded files and suspected that the victims had fallen prey to their own criminal connections. These “mishaps,” as they’ve been flippantly termed, should not occur in a country that respects the rule of law like Germany, and they have contributed significantly to the tensions in the German-Turkish relationship.

A modest response

But especially high-ranking Turkish migrant representatives should steer clear of accusing German investigators and politicians of belittling fires that kill immigrants. Germany does have a neo-Nazi problem, and polls show that it must be taken a lot more seriously than it has been so far. There are many attacks on mosques, homes and facilities for migrants that don’t make their way to the public’s eye, that don’t have any victims and that are quickly filed away. Statistics also show, however, that around 200,000 fires kill almost 500 people a year in Germany. Surely, not all of these fires are caused by arson.

It’s understandable that Turkish government officials feel compelled to take care of their fellow countrymen in Germany. When Germans get into trouble in Turkey, it goes without question that German politicians come to their aid. But such initiatives should not overshoot the aim. The attempt to influence the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary cannot be tolerated by either side.

Court could ease the tensions

The Munich court has rejected every suggestion made regarding granting seats to Turkish journalists for the neo-Nazi trial, which begins on April 17. That might be formally correct, but it shows about as much tact as a bull in a china shop. Who can blame the Turkish media for wondering whether a German court would be just as incompliant if the victims were Polish, British, Russian or even Jewish?

That’s why concessions by the Munich court would be a starting point in easing the tensions in the current crisis of confidence. The next step would have to be taken by politicians and media from both countries: they need to stop their aggressive arguments that just hurt the people on the Turkish as well as on the German side. But only German security and judiciary officials can ease the tensions for good. They have promised to investigate all possible leads, and to be open for any outcomes. In the end, they have to present convincing results on how the fires originated that killed many immigrants. Any attempt to belittle or mollify would be a fatal encouragement for the arsonists to plan more attacks.

via Opinion: German-Turkish crisis of confidence | Germany | DW.DE | 04.04.2013.

Warning from Ankara: Turkey Suspicious After German House Fire

The Turkish government is demanding a detailed investigation into a housefire which killed eight people with Turkish backgrounds in the southern German town of Backnang on Sunday morning. The suspicion shows that trust has not yet returned between Ankara and Berlin.

German officials say that initial investigations show no sign of a xenophobic arson attack. But following a devastating fire early Sunday morning in the southern German town of Backnang — in which eight people with Turkish backgrounds were killed, including seven children — Turkey is demanding that all doubt about the cause of the fire be removed.

“Unfortunately, there have in the past been arson attacks and murders perpetrated against our citizens” Turkish President Abdullah Gül said on Monday, according to reports in the Turkish media. “That’s why we are considering all possibilities.”

Gül isn’t alone in his concern. On Sunday, Ankara’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag struck a similar tone. “It fills us with grief,” he tweeted, in reference to the fire. “From Germany, we expect a clarification for the real cause of the fire which leaves no room for doubt.” In addition, two politicians from Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party traveled to Germany on Sunday to gain a first-hand impression of the investigation.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also released a statement saying Ankara expects a detailed investigation. DITIB, the largest Muslim association in Germany, likewise urged speed and thoroughness. “Unnecessary speculation can only be avoided by way of a rapid, transparent and credible conclusion to the investigation,” the group said in a statement.

Investigators were quick to conclude that the blaze was not likely the result of arson, a swift conclusion DITIB officials found unseemly. The early comments about the possible cause of the fire, the group said, “did not sound credible.”

Initial Suspicion

The fire began in the early morning hours of Sunday in the town just northeast of Stuttgart. According to news reports, by the time fire fighters reached the site — a former leather factory which had been converted into residential apartments — flames were already shooting out of the windows. The seven children who lost their lives were between six months and 16 years old. The eighth victim was their 40-year-old mother, according to German news reports. Three additional children survived the fire and the father was not home at the time of the blaze.

Initial suspicion focused on a wood stove in the apartment though on Monday officials were investigating whether faulty wiring could be to blame after a previous tenant reported having had repeated electrical problems. The investigation will take at least several days and could last weeks, officials said on Monday.

The apartment where the fire began is located above a German-Turkish cultural center. According to media reports, the operator of a nearby bar saved the three children who survived.

The warnings from Ankara highlight the mistrust between Germany and its Turkish minority, particularly following the revelation in late 2011 that a series of murders targeting victims of Turkish background had been committed by a neo-Nazi terror cell. For a decade prior to that case’s resolution, officials had suspected that the victims had belonged to an impenetrable Turkish underworld. The German press had often referred to the killings with the disparaging moniker, the “Döner murders” because some of the victims had owned fast food restaurants selling döner kebabs.

Merkel Deeply Shaken

In addition, Turkish immigrants were the target of several deadly arson attacks in the years immediately following German reunification, particularly in Mölln in 1992 and Solingen in 1993. A total of eight people died in those fires.

German officials appear to be taking the Sunday morning fire very seriously. Governor Winfried Kretschmann of Baden-Württemberg, the state where the fire took place, traveled to Backnang on Sunday together with Turkey’s ambassador to Germany, Hüseyin Avni Karslioglu. The state’s interior minister, Reinhold Gall, likewise visited the site of the fire.

Angela Merkel also voiced her grief on Monday. The chancellor’s deputy spokesman Georg Streiter told reporters that she was deeply shaken by the news and that the Chancellery has offered all assistance necessary to the government of Baden-Württemberg. “The chancellor has no doubt that the officials responsible will not rest until the cause of the fire has been clarified,” Streiter said.

cgh — with wire stories

via Turkish President Demands Deep Investigation into German House Fire – SPIEGEL ONLINE.