Excessive Turkish reactions to the fire in Ludwigshafen

EuropeNews February 08 2008
By Henrik R Clausen

While Turkish nationalists attacking our servers is annoying, what is more sinister is the background and the behaviour of the Turkish press and politicians in reaction to the Ludwigshafen fire.

They reacted to a bit of graffiti on the burned-out building, as if graffiti wasn't everywhere in Germany, and jumped to the conclusion that this would most likely be the beginning of a new wave of racist attacks on Turks in Germany, like the racist arson attack in Solingen in 1993.

By reacting in this way, however fickle the evidence, the *Turkish* politicians are posing as the protectors of Turks in Germany, disregarding that Germany has a fine legal system. That includes the Turkish prime minister Erdogan visiting the place of the fire, holding a joint press conference with Angela Merkel and lots of press articles recalling the, implying that now a new wave of racist attacks against Turks is looming. Indicative of the distrust from the Turkish side, a Turkish investigation team was sent to the site as well – Germans should be perfectly able to examine the site themselves.

This spectacle by the Turkish politicians ignores hat the fire-fighters were doing a marvellous job (no 'racism' here), that the cause of the fire is still unknown after four days of investigation. A probable cause is tinkering with electric circuits - in other words, the inhabitants messing with the wiring in an attempt to steal electricity, causing them to overheat and set off the blaze.

Ignored is also the context that the 1993 attack was extensively exploited by Turkish investment groups to discourage Turks in Germany from investing their hard-earned money in Germany. Later these Turkish investment groups went into bankruptcies (German link), losing a € 25 billion in a network of AKP-connected businessmen (and probably AKP itself). The potential gains by creating another Solingen-like crisis are impressive.

Finally, the performance of the Turkish politicians posing as the protectors of Turks in Germany is a divisive move eeringly similar to the events that eventually led to the division of Cyprus. This is counter-productive to integration but fits well with the "special role" Erdogan assigns the Turkish diaspora in Europe. We are on the edge of insurgencies in many places, latest in Cologne.

What we would like to see from the German politicians, instead of the nice photo-ops, is a clear statement that there is no need to assume racist motives for the fire, no need for ministers of foreign nationality to intervene in the matter, and that the German authorities are perfectly capable of investigating the matter on their own. The Turkish government is already much over the top on this matter and can use a polite lesson on respectfully abstaining from meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and on the primacy of the Rule of law.

Then, suitably, apply that lesson to Turkey proper, where violence against non-Muslims is a significant problem, much more so than any graffiti-based rumours of arson.