NEW LEADER OF THE GERMAN GREENS – AN ETHNIC TURK

AZG Armenian Daily
19/11/2008

International

The Green Party, one of the influential parties of Germany, has
elected Cem Ozdemir, an ethnic Turk, as a co-leader of the party.

It is the first time in the history of the country that the leader of
a German party is of Turkish origin, mentioned "International Herald
Tribune" newspaper underlining that it’s a turning point not only
for the party but also for the whole Germany.

"I want to live in a society where people have equal opportunities
independent of their origin", Ozdemir announced at the summit of the
Greens. He got 49,2 percent of the votes and joined the reelected
co-leader Claudia Roth. .

Cem Ozdemir was born in 1965, in Swabia. He graduated from the Reitling
Lutheran College, sociologist by profession. In 1994 he became the
first ethnic Turk to win a seat in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower
house of parliament. In 2004 he won a seat in the European Parliament
in Brussels. There, he decried human rights abuses in Turkey, while
simultaneously advocating the country’s bid to join the European
Union. "I want Turkey to move forward to EU membership. But that
doesn’t make me blind," Ozdemir says.

The Green Party always speaks in favor of Turkish integration into
the European Union.