Erdogan and Turkey's Double ID

Setting fire to a Turkish house in Solingen, a racist act occurred 25 years ago, on May 29th. Five girls and the family lady Genc were murdered there. German Chancellor at the time Helmut Kohl (CDU) did not go to the funeral ceremony. German government spokesman Dieter Vogel said the reason was “that the Chancellor had God knows, how many other very important meetings --” explaining that it was not necessary to start “comfort tourism”.

It's been a while since these events happened, and some things have changed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will also attend the memorial ceremony under the occasion next week. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevluüt Cavusoglu will also attend. It was the expressed wish of Mevlüde Genc, mother, grandmother and aunt of the murdered victims, for representatives from the German government and the Turkish government to attend the memorial ceremony.

Since the 75-year-old Genc attack has occurred, she has been trying to reconcile and honoured for this with the German Cross for special merits. When I visited her five years ago at her new home in Solingen, and I talked to her about an interview, I had no doubt that she takes a stand against hate, that is for forgiveness and coexistence. A impressed strong woman who has decided to take up German citizenship in 1996. I live in Germany, so I want to be German,” she said when she got citizenship.

Multipolar World

In contrast, the development of another family member seems to have occurred: Kamil Genc, two generations younger than Mevlüde Genc. It is presented on twitter with a slogan that Germans find pathetic, but every Turk remembers the views of Turkish nationalists and fascists: “A flag, a language, a nation.” The flag, language and nation are Turkish. His Facebook page poses for Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan. So there is no need to be surprised that Kamil Genc leaves Solingen to see his president at an election rally in Sarajevo.

Turkish German-based relations involving both poles and are difficult to analyze, as it is difficult to analyze two diametrically opposed attitudes within a family. If we follow media discussions and especially social networking, we find answers that are very simple about the lack of integration, for example. A banal response, used every time conflicts arise in migration society.
We must acknowledge that the worlds where we live are multipolar and people have hybrid identities. Mesut ãozil, may also be in this world a German national player and a leader of the Turkish president, although I think his photo of Erdogan is a moral mistake. Bekir Alboga may also be in charge of dialogue by Turkish Muslims in Germany and run for Erdogan's party in Turkey. Kenan Kolat, for many years Turks' spokesperson in Germany, may also be in the federal leadership of the German Social Democrat party, the SPD, and represent the Turkish CHP party.

Erdogan helps followers abroad boost awareness

What definition would integration have if we accused these three public persons of lack of integration? Also complicated is the question of why 10,000 Turks living in other countries travel 1,000 miles by bus and cars to hear a 40-minute speech by Erdogan in Sarajevo. Turkish television stations broadcast any kind of activity the only ruler performs. It is also difficult to understand why 60 per cent of Turkish voters in Germany, who benefit from democratic rights, who can be organised free in political and religious associations, vote in Turkey for one man who has taken all power into his hands, who puts into prison every person who criticises him, prohibits the free press, and governs the country since the failed stamp. Erdogan governs as a mafia boss who misuses politics for himself.

In the eyes of his electors, he is the strong man, who for the first time in Turkey's history speaks to Europeans without complex inferiority. A politician, who manifests himself safely and helps followers in other countries outside Turkey become equally secure in themselves. Turk in Germany is no longer the foreign worker who does bad things, or the immigrant. The president is on the same level as the most powerful in the world. Going out with him is no shame, but he proudly fills a Turk who has always been viewed with downplay.

The thing is how democracy is understood

Erdogan's support from Germany's Turks is not just a matter of integration. It's more democracy issues, as a matter of course democracy, it's an education issue.
Isn't Macau integrated? Or does this question no longer play a role in the world star and multimillionth, which can work and live anywhere in the world? More importantly, would it be the question of how valuable freedom of thought and freedom of the press is in Turkey? Is he aware of his role as “example of the integration achieved in Germany”? How well-formed and politically informed is he, to know that Erdogan is useful to any vote coming from Turks living abroad and exploits this photo taken together during the election campaign?

I doubt these questions will disturb Erdogan's followers, who go and follow him everywhere themselves. Just as I suspect they support the Turkish despot because they are excluded from German politics. That too would be inadequate.
Mevlüde Genc has lost two daughters and three nieces. She does not speak German, but she is identified with Germany and peaceful coexistence. If we tried to understand this woman, we'd probably understand complicated German-Turkish relationships.

/Kemal Hür, born in the East Anadolu and lives since 1980 in Berlin. He has studied Germanistic, sociologist and theatre and works as a free journalist for German radio programs Deutschlandradio.

/DW