Divisions...

Turkey’s divisions divide Germany

Pressure on Angela Merkel to take stronger stance against Ankara for its post-coup crackdown is intensifying.

By Janosch Delcker

Turkey’s political civil war is spilling over into Europe’s largest country.

The divisions within Turkish society exposed and widened by the failed July 15 military uprising and subsequent crackdown are roughly mirrored among the 3 million ethnic Turks who live in Germany. It is expressed in increasingly heated polemics between German politicians, some of them of Turkish descent, and within the public at large — raising concerns that some of Turkey’s political violence could yet be exported to Germany.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Turkish Germans gathered in Cologne to condemn the coup and express their support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Police put the turnout at 40,000 and demonstrators chanted “Turkey” and held up signs backing the president — “Leave Erdoğan in peace” read one.

“We are here because our compatriots in Germany are standing up for democracy and against the attempted military coup in Turkey,” said Turkey’s sports minister, Akif Çağatay Kılıç, who was at the rally. “You … have proven that you live and love for democracy.”

Hours before the event, Germany’s constitutional court denied an application to show live speeches from Turkey by politicians, including Erdoğan. The decision caused anger in Turkey, with a presidential spokesman calling the move unacceptable and a “violation of the freedom of expression and the right to free assembly.”

The Turkish president, who came to power in 2002 on promises to modernize the country’s economy and politics and who has since turned increasingly authoritarian, has jailed hundreds of opponents, closed thousands of schools and muzzled the free media in the past two weeks. Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency.

As the crackdown in Turkey draws criticism from EU leaders, Erdoğan remains popular among the majority of Turks in Germany. During the last parliamentary elections, in November 2015, almost 60 percent voted for the president’s AK Party.

The size of the rally in Cologne shows that support for the Turkish leader remains strong, even though criticism of Erdoğan dominates Germany’s mainstream media.

Ahead of Sunday’s protest, German politicians sounded their concerns about Turkey’s divisive politics coming north. In a newspaper article, Deputy Finance Minister Jens Spahn advised “those whose hearts beat for Erdoğan and who think that he should make Turkey great and proud again” to express their support “in Turkey — not in Cologne.”

Spahn isn’t the only one to fear Turkish problems being exported to Western Europe. In neighboring Austria, residents of the town of Wiener Neustadt were told not to display Turkish flags in windows and on balconies for fear of inciting violence.

The most high profile ethnic Turkish politician in Germany, Cem Özdemir, is leading the charge against Erdoğan. The chairman of the German Green Party told Bild am Sonntag that Erdoğan “must not exert any influence in Berlin, Stuttgart, or Munich,” and called on Germany to impose economic sanctions against Turkey.

Özdemir was one of the driving forces behind a successful vote in the German parliament earlier this year, which declared that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was genocide — a move that sparked anger in Ankara.

Özdemir’s views, however, are far from representative of Turks, both in Turkey and in Germany.

“The problem is that in many important parts of Turkish society, people feel about Europe along the lines of ‘they don’t want us; they’ve never really wanted us,’” said Christoph Ramm, who teaches Turkish studies at the University of Bern. “This sort of siege mentality is very common among Erdoğan’s supporters in Germany as well.”

Angela Merkel has criticized the crackdown in Turkey, but doesn’t want to escalate tensions with Ankara in a way that might imperil the migration deal between the EU and Turkey. The agreement has helped stem the flow of migrants into Europe.

“It is, of course, the right thing and important to take actions against those behind an attempted military coup within all means of a state under the rule of law,” Merkel told journalists during a press conference on Thursday, “but what worries me, and what I am following closely, is that the principle of proportionality has to be in force.… Precisely because of the fact that 3 million people with Turkish roots live here in Germany, it’s of the greatest interest to us that Turkey follows this principle.”

Others in her conservative party have, so far, also resisted calls for sanctions.

“We can’t be silent about human rights abuses in Turkey — if there are reports about torture in Turkish prisons, we have to send an enquiry committee to Turkey to investigate this,” Cemile Giousouf, a member of the German parliament and the integration commissioner of Merkel’s conservative parliamentary group, told POLITICO. “But at the same time, we need Turkey as a friend of Europe,” she said, warning of a security risk “if Turkey was not a friend.”

The political upheaval in Turkey re-ignited a decade-long debate in Germany about the Turkish state steering public opinion within the German-Turkish community through a web of lobbying groups, religious institutions, media outlets and public figures.

One of the most influential interest groups is Germany’s largest mosque association, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB). Founded in 1984 and with ties to the Turkish state, it promotes Sunni Islam and represents around 700 mosques. It has often been accused of spreading pro-Erdoğan propaganda in Germany.

“DITIB has, for years, been doing important work when it comes to integration,” Giousouf said. “But from now on and in the future, the organization has to clearly distance itself from the influence of the Turkish government — which still pays their imams, and thereby automatically carries Turkish political conflicts into German mosques.”

Although representatives of DITIB insist they are a non-political organization, they don’t deny being closely associated with Turkish religious authorities, which are in turn connected to Turkish state authorities.

“DITIB is headquartered in Cologne. There, the people in charge report directly to Ankara. At the end of this chain, there is President Erdoğan,” the Greens’ leader Cem Özdemir told German public radio.

Speaking out against Erdoğan in such a way has a cost. All 11 German MPs of Turkish origin were put under police protection after receiving death threats following June’s vote to declare the Armenian massacre a genocide. Even when under state protection, the MPs could still feel Erdoğan’s influence, with many German Turkish organizations refusing to express their support for the parliamentarians.

“We were very disappointed — and I believe I can talk for all 11 German parliamentarians with Turkish roots — when Erdoğan declared open season on us after the German parliament passed the Armenia resolution saying that our blood was ‘tainted’ and that we were acting as the extended arm of Kurdish militant PKK,” Giousouf — the only MP with Turkish roots in Merkel’s CDU — told POLITICO.

“And DITIB? They did nothing about it — literally nothing,” she said. “They just remained silent, which is not on.”