TURKEY WITHDRAWS CONSUL FROM GERMANY AFTER CONTROVERSY
Monsters and Critics.com
/europe/news/article_1477168.php/Turkey_withdraws_ consul_from_Germany_after_controversy_#ixzz0FVpnU3 VH&B
May 14 2009
Berlin – Turkey has withdrawn a consul from Germany after controversy
over remarks in private in which he disparaged Germans, legislators
in Berlin were told Thursday.
Over drinks and food, Hakan Kivanc, Turkey’s consul-general in
Dusseldorf, allegedly told a dinner party of fellow Turks that
Germans had Nazi blood and were treating Turks as the Nazis had
treated Jews. German conservatives were furious at the remarks.
A written response by the German Foreign Ministry to federal
legislators said that Turkey had suspended Kivanc from the post on
Monday ‘with immediate effect.’ It was not made public till Thursday.
Christian Democratic supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel had asked
a question in parliament about what the government was going to do
about Kivanc, who represented Turkey in Dusseldorf, capital of the
state of North Rhine Westphalia.
Two witnesses made affidavits about the remarks at a private lunch
on February 22. Kivanc himself denied the accusations.
The German Foreign Ministry later spoke to senior Ankara officials
about the controversy, which divided Turkish immigrant groups in
Germany. Turkish newspapers charged that he had been smeared by
legislators who oppose Turkey’s desire to join the European Union.
Kivanc, who was meeting non-Muslim minority Turks, was quoted as
saying that if Germans had their way, they would tattoo a ‘T’ on
everyone from Turkey and do to them what the Nazis did to the Jews.
If you cut open a German, Kivanc was alleged to have said, the spilled
blood would be brown, the colour associated with Nazis.
The controversy touched the delicate relations between Christians and
Muslims in Turkey. Christian minorities from Turkey living in Germany,
such as Assyrians and Armenians, as well as minority Alawites and
Kurds, have suggested Turkey does not help them.