By Gunnar Schupelius
The Turkish community must decisively counter the hatred of Israel among Turks in Germany – instead it declares Muslims to be victims of politics and the media. She didn’t recognize the seriousness of the situation, says Gunnar Schupelius.
On Friday, the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) issued an appeal to “politics and the media” with the headline: “Stop migrating existing problems!”
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is specifically addressed. In the BZ he had called for the planned law on simplified naturalization to be stopped. The federal government is planning to simplify naturalization and make it possible after just three years of residence; the decision should now become law.
On the contrary, Linnemann calls for naturalization to be examined more closely; this is particularly necessary given the flare-up of anti-Semitism among Arab and Turkish migrants. Naturalization must be at the end of successful integration, not at the beginning. The FDP and SPD politicians had already made similar statements.
Also incited by the Turkish president’s propaganda: anti-Israel demonstrators in Berlin on Saturday Photo: DAVIDS/Christina Kratsch
The federal chairman of the TGD, Gökay Sofoğlu, claims in the appeal that Linnemann is linking “the issues of naturalization and anti-Semitism” and is thus formulating a “general suspicion against people with a migration history or people with Muslim influences”. This is “politically, ethically and technically extremely questionable”.
The co-chair of the TGD, Aslıhan Yeşilkaya-Yurtbay, even assumed that Linnemann was sending the migrants the fatal “signal”: “We don’t want you to become part of our country!”
However, the CDU General Secretary neither said nor meant that. Anyone who speaks out against the particularly rapid naturalization because they fear that incorrigible anti-Semites will become German citizens is not devaluing anyone, they are simply worried.
This concern is more than justified when one considers the almost daily parade of Israel’s worst enemies and the Jews on our streets. Friends of Hamas and all holy warriors immigrated; many of them received German citizenship in the good faith that they had adopted our values.
The Turkish community does not address this in its appeal. She also doesn’t mention that many Turks in Germany are under the influence of Turkish President Erdogan and his infamous propaganda.
Erdogan seriously sided with the death squads that carried out the massacres in Israel on October 7th. The fight against Hamas is a new Western crusade against Islam, he claimed. He specifically incites the anti-Semitic mob that rages through the streets here.
Gökay Sofoğlu and Aslıhan Yeşilkaya-Yurtbay know this. But instead of condemning Erdogan for this, they declare the Muslims in Germany to be victims of politics and the media. This is dishonest.
The Turkish community must decisively counter the hatred of Israel among Turks in Germany – instead it is pouring fuel on the fire. She didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation.
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