As the United States is facing the violent spill over effects of George Floyd murder by the Minneapolis police, German Turks are marking one of the several fatal attacks that took 5 lives 27 years ago in small German town Solingen. Over six decades in Germany, Turks have been subjected to systematic fatal attacks which have been covered up by German law enforcements.
Three generations of the Genc family whom emigrated to Germany from Turkey lived a secluded life in an old wooden house in Solingen, Germany. On May 29, 1993, 4 Neo-Nazis set their homes on fire. 5 people including a 4 years old toddler were burnt to death. “Firefighters were very late and they did ignore our instructions on how to enter the house. If they listened to us, my kids could be saved,” said Mevlude Genc, the acclaimed mother who dedicated her life to fighting racism in Germany. German Chancellor at the time, Hermut Kohl declined to attend to the funeral to pay farewell to the victims. Attackers received light sentences as low as 10 years prison.
Only six months earlier, another arson attack burnt down a multi-family house of belonging to Turkish families in Mölln in which 3 people were killed. It was first deadly neo-Nazi attack after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Every single member of the Turkish community in Germany agrees that German state’s inaction encouraged the culprits of Solingen terror attack. If German law enforcement forces took a decisive action after Molln attack, Solingen massacre would have never taken place. When Helmut Kohl, then Prime Minster of Germany, was asked by journalists why he was at the CDU congress instead of being at the memorial service for the Mölln victims, he said he does want to turn the Federal Government into “condolence tourism.” His response set German state’s tone against following Neo-Nazi attacks. One if the attackers, Lars C. was released from prison after serving only 7,5 years.
In 1988, another arson attack targeted a building where 3 Turkish families lived in Schwandorf, a small town near Munich. Three members of Can family were killed in the fire. It would be recorded as the first deadly racist attack in the post-war Germany. After the attack took place in Schwandorf, the small Turkish community wanted to commemorate the hideous massacre. They applied to the municipality several times but only to face for 20 years from the officials of the Interior Minister Horst Seehofer’s party, Christian Social Union or CSU.
When Mölln attacker, Pars C. was released from prison after serving only little over 7 years in 2000, first murder of German terror group NSU took place. German Federal and State law enforcement agencies overlooked the blatant truth about an apparent racist serial murderer. Instead, victim families and Turkish community were pointed finger at until NSU self-destructed in 2006. And German justice covered every single evidence that would prove deep ties of German state to the NSU murders.
Fast-forward 20 years after the first NSU murder, an armed racist German went on a rampage in German town of Hanau murdering 9 people all of whom were immigrant backgrounds. German police once more refused to dig further into racist motives and found the attacker dead after the hideous murders.
Blacks in the US have been facing murders for decades which have mostly gone unpunished. Latest one of those attacks just took place in Minneapolis. George Floyd was murdered by a police officer while begging for some air. Fate of Turks in Germany is very similar to the Blacks in the US as both of them have been suffocating because of the systematic, state-protected murders. Only difference is Turks in Germany adamantly deny to be involved in violent reactions as Black people have done after pretty much every murder by police force.
Diaspora Daily 