Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
 Wednesday 8:41 PM EST



Far-right German politician lashes out at Turks as 'camel herders'

Dresden, Germany

DPA POLITICS Germany politics AfD  Far-right German politician lashes
out at Turks as 'camel herders' Dresden, Germany
Germany's Turkish community got slammed as
"camel herders" on Wednesday by a leading member of the far-right
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party who was incensed by opposition to
a proposed new ministry.


The proposed home affairs ministry came up last week amid talks
around forming the next German government. The plan would see
Bavaria's conservative premier Horst Seehofer take on the Interior
Ministry portfolio, but with the agency expanded to include a special
focus on home affairs.

That would likely mean more efforts to boost underdeveloped parts of
the country. But several Turkish groups have opposed the concept,
saying the new addition - a Heimatministerium - reminds of historical
concepts of a German homeland, popular in the Nazi era, that might
divide the country rather than unite it.

But the plan is popular with the AfD, which bounced into the German
Bundestag in last year's elections and has only seen its support grow
amid political bickering by the more established parties.

"These caraway traders have the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians
weighing them down ... and they want to tell us something about
history and homeland? They're nuts. These camel herders should set
off to where they belong."

He was referring to the World War I-era deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians in Turkey, an event that has been recognized
as a genocide by several countries, despite Turkey's rejection of the
term.

He also lashed out at calls by the country's Turkish community for
dual citizenship, which he said results in nothing "but homeland- and
fatherland-less riff-raff."