Electioneering in Turkey
Turkish right-wing populists on the rise

Right-wing radicalism and nationalism have dominated Turkish politics for decades. Now a new right-wing populist grouping is stirring things up: enter the "Victory Party". 

By Elmas Topcu

19 May is a bank holiday in Turkey. It is a day rich in symbolism, dedicated to Turkish youth by the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. On 19 May 1919, the father of the country launched the war of liberation against Western powers, which lasted until the founding of the Republic in 1923 – or so it says in Turkish history books.

For Umit Ozdag, leader of the new Victory Party, 19 May provided the perfect opportunity to bang the nationalist drum. The 61-year-old visited the mausoleum of Ataturk in the Turkish capital Ankara with a group of supporters and posed with passers-by in front of the large monument. People who recognised him were keen to catch a selfie. A man walking past called out to him, "My teacher, it’s good you exist." One woman even kissed Ozdag on the forehead.

Umit Ozdag is the shooting star of recent weeks. Wherever he appears, a crowd quickly forms. Everyone wants to see him, many want to express their support. Because Umit Ozdag deliberately addresses the issues that are worrying many Turks: galloping inflation, dwindling purchasing power, existential fears and alleged "alienation" in their own country due to refugees.

Scapegoating the Syrian refugees

According to official figures, there are currently 3.8 million Syrian refugees registered in Turkey. How high the actual number is remains uncertain. In addition, there are refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries, whose number according to the UNHCR is said to be around 320,000. The number of unreported cases is suspected to be much higher.

"We don't want our people to struggle with hunger and poverty while our taxes are spent on Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis," Umit Ozdag has been heard to rail at numerous events in recent weeks. Refugee bashing goes down well with many Turks. Because people are afraid. Inflation recently reached around 70 percent. The population is suffering under the enormous increase in prices. And there is no end in sight.

End of the welcome culture: Turkey, with its population of almost 85 million, currently hosts around five million refugees. More than 3.6 million of them are Syrians. They fled to their southern neighbour following the outbreak of civil war in 2011. In the wake of the severe monetary and economic crisis in Turkey, sentiment toward Syrian refugees in particular is intensifying. Last year saw violent attacks on Syrians, their homes and their businesses in the capital Ankara

Ideological proximity to the "Grey Wolves"

Actually, Umit Ozdag is no new " saviour" either, he has been part of the political establishment too long for that. But the tone he strikes is a new one.

Umit Ozdag comes from a politically active family. His father was a close confidant of Alparslan Turkes, founder of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Better known in Germany for its "Grey Wolves" organisation, which also has boasts networks in Germany and is under surveillance by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Ozdag's mother was also active in the MHP. She was the very first chairperson of the party’s women's branch.

Ozdag was born in Japan, where his father worked in the diplomatic service in the early 1960s. Ozdag studied political science, philosophy and economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Ozdag was also a member of the MHP. First in the youth organisation, then in the executive committee. Until he was expelled from the party in 2016 after openly criticising its leadership. A year earlier, the MHP had entered into an alliance with Erdogan, enabling the AKP to gain a majority upon re-election. To Ozdag, the idea of propping up Erdogan's government was a source of serious displeasure.

He and a handful of other MHP dissidents subsequently founded the conservative-nationalist Iyi Parti, in English "the Good Party". Having fallen out with the leadership, he resigned in 2021 and ultimately founded his own party: the "Victory Party".
Right-wing agitation meets with widespread approval

His new party only really took off a few months ago, however, after he started issuing right-wing extremist, racist and anti-refugee statements. Since then, his approval ratings have improved dramatically. In the latest polls at the beginning of May, support for the party even exceeded the two-percent mark, which by Turkish standards is already quite high.

Zafer Partisi – " Victory Party ": Turkey’s new nationalist party borrows from the legacy and ideology of the Pan-Turkish-Turanian movement, which in the 1930s and 40s was still closely linked to the official national ideology of Kemalism in the youthful republic. The party's founder, Umit Ozdag, draws on these nationalist elements. Panturkism, and/or Panturanism play an important role in Ozdag’s ideology, confirms Turkey expert Kemal Bozay from the International University of Duesseldorf and Cologne

For Professor Kemal Bozay of the International University of Applied Sciences in Dusseldorf and Cologne, who has been observing the Turkish ultranationalists for years, the ideological colour of the Victory Party is clear: "Its party agenda is ultranationalist; its rhetoric and forms of presentation extremely right-wing populist," says Bozay in interview. Ozdag draws on certain folk-nationalist elements. Panturkism, or Panturanism, plays an important role for him, Bozay adds. For Turkish ultra-nationalists, Turan is the ideal of an ethnically homogeneous state of all Turkic peoples from the Balkans to Western China, to be established under the leadership of Turks.

According to expert Bozay, Ozdag also presents these historical folk-nationalist elements in his party manifesto. It is worth noting that, having founded his party, Ozdag immediately visited the grave of Alparslan Turkes, the former leader of the Grey Wolves, linking his party directly to the legacy of the latter.

Ozdag – scathingly critical of the AKP

Umit Ozdag pulls no punches when it comes to the ruling party, either. Most recently, he clashed with Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. Soylu had strongly criticised Ozdag for his party’s financing of an anti-refugee film called "Silent Conquest". The situation between the two men came to such a head that Ozdag, to the amazement of the Turkish public, practically challenged the interior minister to a duel: were the interior minister man enough, he would come out, Ozdag threatened.

Thanks to such statements, Ozdag suddenly began to score points with many government critics, even those calling themselves social democrats. A heated debate broke out on social media. Ozdag was not racist at all, many said. He was defending the values of a healthy Turkish patriotism. As a result, Ozdag also received support from the largest opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP).

‎Turkish right-wing extremists dream of empire: Defending the state is the practical expression of the Gray Wolves' dream of "Turan": An empire that unites all Turkic peoples - from Asia to Europe to North Africa. People from different Turkish societies live there. This is not about the Republic of Turkey, but about the cultural and ethnic tribe of the Turks. Her distinguishing mark is the wolf, which is revered in the old Turkish, shamanic mythology as a magic helper. 

‎Difference to the MHP or BBP‎

‎Can Ozdag's Victory Party establish itself? For political scientist Berk Esen of Sabanci University, it is still too early to say. It will take a few years to assess the party's potential, once it has adopted policies in other areas. ‎

‎Historically, the Turkish ultra-nationalists have split once before. Their right-wing Islamist wing broke away in 1993 to found the "Great Unity Party" (BBP). To them, Islam is an essential part of Turkish identity. ‎

‎For Umit Ozdag and his party, this does not play a major role, says Kemal Bozay. Another difference to the ultra-nationalists is the Victory Party’s anti-government stance. While the MHP and BBP support Erdogan and the AKP government, Ozdag opposes the government, Bozay reminds us. ‎

‎Moreover, these old ultra-nationalists, the MHP and BBP, have always maintained close ties to the so-called deep state, Turkey's "state within a state" and its paramilitary underground structures. Umit Ozdag, on the other hand, has clearly distanced himself from them, Bozay notes. ‎

‎Similarities with European right-wing populists‎

‎For political scientist Berk Esen, the Victory Party displays ‎‎similarities with European populists‎‎. Not only because of the anti-refugee theses, he says, and goes on to explain: for Ozdag, Turkey consists of two camps; on the one side are the government and the opposition as the political elite, who tacitly accept Turkey being overrun by refugees. The rest are the people, whom Ozdag wants to save with his Victory Party. Indeed, it is surprising such a populist party took so long to emerge. ‎

‎Here, Esen is referring to the alliance between the ruling AKP and the ultra-nationalist MHP and BBP. Both have supported Erdogan since 2018 and go along with his refugee policy, despite the rumblings of dissent among their supporters. Whether they can continue to keep the party faithful in line or stand to lose them to the Victory Party is currently hard to tell. One thing however is certain: the issue of refugees will continue to preoccupy Turkish society. ‎

‎Elmas Topcu‎
‎© Deutsche Welle / Qantara.de 2022‎

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ARMENIANS, KURDS, SECULARISTS UNITE AGAINST

'Erdogan, Assassin,' shout French Armenians on genocide anniversary amid security concerns

Issued on: 25/04/2021 - 

France's Armenian diaspora takes to the streets of Paris on the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide on April 24, 2021. © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

Text by: Charlotte WILKINS

France’s Armenian diaspora took to the streets of Paris, Lyon and Marseille on Saturday to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide on the heels of a war with Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan and amid fears for their security at home.

Father Gilbert Leonian was fast asleep when they came to burn the church. It was 6am on a Sunday morning in the Paris suburb of Alfortville and he would not be holding a service at the Armenian Protestant church for another few hours. But his wife heard a noise – the sound of a rubbish bin filled with petrol being hurled against the front door – and woke him. By the time he’d opened the window of their first-floor room, directly above the church, it was already lit up by the flames.

“I thought the church had caught fire, that the stairs were on fire, and that we were going to die,” he said.

Luckily for Father Leonian, the flames only blackened the front door of the church. But it was the second attack on his church in a week, coming days after the 2017 visit from the pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Church in Baghdad, and forms part of a growing number of attacks against the Armenian community in France.

“I feel less and less safe in France,” said Veskan,* at a rally in Paris on Saturday to mark the 106th anniversary of the 1915-1918 genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire.

Sevag and Veskan were among those concerned by last year's violence towards the Armenian community in Décines, at a rally in Paris on April 24, 2021. © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

France formally recognised the World War One massacres as a genocide in 2001. In February 2019 French President Emmanuel Macron declared that April 24 – the day in 1915 that the killings of Armenians began – would be a “national day of commemoration”.

More than a century after the massacres, the crowd gathered by a statue of the Armenian composer Komitas in Paris’s affluent eighth arrondissement (district) shouted, "The genocide continues", as they prepared to march along the Seine to the Turkish embassy.

“Erdogan, Assassin,” they chanted amid indignation over the Turkish president’s vehement refusal to recognise the Ottoman Empire's genocide of the Armenians.

Three generations of families, young parents with prams and teenage girls wrapped in the Armenian flag milled around in the bright sunshine ahead of the march. Some carried photos of Armenian resistance heroes; others held banners depicting Erdogan as a devil or a murderer. “Hitlerdogan,” read a banner.

Protesters were indignant at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's refusal to recognise the Armenian genocide, on April 24 2021.

 © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

Last year's conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan was also the cause of grief among protesters.

Anger at Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev has been growing after Armenia suffered a crushing defeat and lost vast swathes of territory. “Aliyev, Erdogan get out of Artsaskh,” read one banner, using another name to refer to the disputed territory.

'Erdogan gives them confidence'

But amid the despair of Armenia’s defeat, and anguish over Azerbaijan’s treatment of up to 300 Armenian political prisoners, there was anxiety over the violence stirred up by Turkish ultra-nationalist militias at home in France.

“It’s terrifying,” said Sabrina Davidian, 39, who carried a banner saying ‘Turkey, get out of Armenia’, “that Turkey’s tentacles can reach as far as France. It’s as if Turkey’s hate campaign against the Armenians never ended."

'It's as if Turkey's hate campaign against the Armenians never ended,' said Sabrina Davidian, 39. © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

Many at the Paris rally were also troubled by attacks last year in Décines, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon.

On October 28, as the Nagorno-Karabakh war raged, hundreds of supporters of the Turkish far-right Grey Wolves militia took to the streets of Décines, calling “Death to Armenians".

“Where are the Armenians?” the attackers cried as they marched through the town, wielding iron bars and national flags and shouting pro-Erdogan slogans as they smashed up Armenian shops.

“It’s as if we were in 1930s Germany,” said Veskan’s friend, Sevag,* a wiry, animated third generation Armenian, who like many at the rally asked not to give his full name.

“They would never have dared to do that 10 years ago,” he said in the run-up to the commemoration.

France's Armenian diaspora took to the streets of Paris on the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, on April 24, 2021. © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

“Erdogan gives them confidence, he finances them, the Turkish embassy here is his backyard,” said Sevag, adding that the Armenian community had begun beefing up security at schools and associations, and started using bodyguards.

Sevag was outraged that the ringleader of the attacks in Décines, Ahmet Cetin, 23, who publicly incited violence against Armenians on social media, was given just a six-month suspended sentence and a €1,000 fine.

“Imagine a 16-year-old hearing his words, seeing there’s an Armenian school and thinking, ‘Well I’ll do the job’,” said Sevag.

Tigrane Yegavian, a journalist and researcher at the CF2R (French Intelligence Research Centre) think tank, warned that the flames of an ancient conflict are being instrumentalised in France.

“What’s happening is very dangerous,” he said. “If nothing is done in France – we're practically headed for a civil war,” he said, adding that the Armenians have never had problems integrating anywhere, only in Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“I have nothing against the Turks – nothing,” said the writer Ian Manook, 71, whose latest novel was inspired by his grandmother, who was sold to the Turks as a slave when she was 10.

“We share the same food, the same music … nearly the same dances. I blame the Turkish state … and Erdogan is playing with fire.”

France banned the Grey Wolves in November 2020 but no-one at the rally believed they had melted away.

France's Armenian diaspora took to the streets of Paris on the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide on April 24, 2021. © Charlotte Wilkins, FRANCE 24

“They’re still out there,” said Pierre*, who wore a T-shirt in support of Artsakh, adding that he was followed in December by a car with the Grey Wolves insignia, and that the driver made the Grey Wolves salutation in the rearview mirror.

But amid concerns that France was not doing enough to prevent attacks against Armenians, there was hope that US President Joe Biden’s recognition of the genocide would lead to broader international support for Armenia.

Macron was the only Western leader to acknowledge that Azerbaijan started the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and accused Turkey of sending 2,000 Syrian mercenaries to participate in the fighting, a move he said “which changes the situation”.

But he stopped short of taking a side, facing criticism and protests at home from the Armenian diaspora – which numbers between 400,000-600,000 people – that he didn’t do more to support Yerevan.

“We know that intellectually France is behind us. But France has got a financial relationship with Turkey,” said Sevag, adding that France has got to make its mind up. “Either it’s the country of human rights or it’s the country of money.”

Turnout at the rally, held amid tight security, was lower than last year because of the Covid-19 restrictions in place – France is still officially under its third national lockdown to stem the spread of the virus – but there was no denying the resolve of those gathered.

“The Armenians are not an aggressive people,” said Sevag. “But if we’re going to be massacred even in France, we’ve got to do something.”

*Protesters who asked not to give their surnames

German city of Bremen bans the silent fox gesture over links with far-right Turkish group

Copyright AP Photo

By Jonny Walfisz
Published on 19/07/2024 - 

What does the hand gesture say? A bit too much, according to authorities in the German city of Bremen who fear its links with a far-right Turkish nationalist movement.

Officials have banned the “silent fox” hand gesture from use in schools due to its association with the Turkish nationalist movement.

The silent fox gesture – made by lifting the index and little finger while pinching together the middle and ring finger with your thumb – has been used throughout Europe as a teaching method to quiet classrooms.

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But the silent fox is to be phased out of use in day cares and schools in the German city of Bremen due to its visual similarity to the “wolf salute”, a political symbol of the Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları) and the Nationalist Movement Party in Türkiye.

The controversial wolf salute gesture represents a combination of Turkishness and Islam by the Grey Wolves, a Turkish far-right political group that has been described as a “death squad” and “terrorist organisation” for its reported association with political violence.

Austria banned the wolf salute gesture in 2019, with France following suit. While the gesture hasn’t been outright banned in Germany, the move by Bremen authorities is a significant shift towards the approach of its neighbours.

Turkey fans show the 'wolf salute', the origin of which is attributed to a right-wing extremist movement, during a fan walk before the start of the Euro 2024 quarterfinal Christoph Soeder/(c) Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte vorbehalten

The wolf salute hit headlines earlier this month when Turkish footballer Merih Demiral was banned for two games by UEFA after he used the gesture to celebrate scoring against Austria in the Euros.

Demiral claimed it was an expression of Turkish pride while Germany’s interior minister Nancy Faesar said: “To use the football championships as a platform for racism is completely unacceptable.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to what he considered the hypocrisy of the ruling by UEFA: “Does anybody ask why the German national jersey has an eagle, or the French jersey a rooster?”.

Sudeten Germans from the Free Corps receiving the Nazi salute as they pass through Haslow as they march back into Czechoslovakia on Sept. 22, 1938. Len PUTTNAM/AP

Erdoğan has been criticised for his own use of the wolf salute. In 2018, he briefly showed the gesture at a campaign rally in Mersin which political commentators viewed as an attempt to corral the far right nationalists to his voter base.

If the wolf salute were to be fully banned in Germany, it would join the Sieg Heil – the salute popularised as a show of obedience to Adolf Hitler – as an illegal gesture. It is also a criminal offence to use the Sieg Heil in Austria, Slovakia and Italy, with it constituting as hate speech in most of the rest of Europe.

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German soccer star Özil's tattoo: Who are the Gray Wolves?

Elmas Topcu
07/27/2023

DW

Former Germany midfielder Mesut Özil has made headlines with a picture of him showing a Gray Wolves tattoo. But who are the Turkish ultranationalists and why are they under observation by German authorities?

Former German national team player Mesut Özil has a tattoo with Gray Wolves symbols

Image: Instagram

Fitness coach Alper A. is fond of posting pictures of his clients on Instagram, typically the classic "before and after" shots that showcase his success stories. The most recent one, featuring Mesut Özil, a former Germany national football team star, has caused a stir. The two men stand side-by-side proudly flaunting their toned stomachs after an apparently successful training program.

But it is the tattoo visible on the left side of Özil's chest that is at the center of discussions in Germany, where he was born and raised in a Turkish immigrant family. It shows the silhouette of a howling wolf and three crescent moons — typical symbols of the Turkish ultranationalist group the Gray Wolves, also known as the Idealist Hearths or Ulku Ocaklari.

The animal is an important symbol for Turkish right-wing extremists. In mythology, a gray wolf saved the ancestors of the Turkish peoples from their enemies and helped them ascend as a great power. For many, it therefore represents power. The wolf hand salute also comes from this myth.

The well-known gray wolf salute on display

Three crescents were found on the war flag of the Ottomans. Today, they form the party logo of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which has beenthe largest ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for years.

Gray Wolf ideology

German authorities characterise the group's ideology as nationalist-extremist, anti-Semitic and racist. Their stereotypical enemies include Kurds,Armenians, Jews and Christians, since they believe in the superiority of the Turkish nation. The Gray Wolves committed numerous acts of violence and murders in the past, particularly in the 1970s.

According to Germany's domestic intelligence services, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the aim of the Gray Wolves is to establish a homogeneous state of all Turkic peoples under Turkish leadership — from the Balkans to western China.

The logo of ultranationalist party MHP: three white crescents on a red background

I
There are two main currents within the Gray Wolves: the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Great Unity Party (BBP), the extremism researcher Kemal Bozay finds.

Of the two, the ultranationalist MHP is the original Gray Wolves organization, according to Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Gray Wolves in Europe

Gray Wolves are organized throughout Europe. A regional umbrella organization, the Turkish Confederation in Europe, was founded in the German city of Frankfurt in 2007 to bundle the various European offshoots.

Across Europe, there have been repeated clashes involving Gray Wolves, particularly with Kurds. Austria prohibited Gray Wolves symbols in 2019 and France banned their offshoot in 2020. Late that same year, the German parliament resolved to consider a similar ban. So far, it has not come to fruition.

Security authorities in Germany believe there are some 11,000 Gray Wolves members, around 9,500 of them organized in associations, nationwide.

The association with the largest number of members is the "Türkisch Demokratischen Idealistenvereine in Deutschland" (Turkish Democratic Idealists Associations in Germany), known as ADÜTDF from Turkish-language acronym. It represents the interests of the ultranationalist MHP, Erdogan's ally. With over 7,000 members in Germany, ADÜTDF is the largest known umbrella organization within the Gray Wolves milieu. It is organized into 160 local associations.

The second biggest is ATIB, the "Union der Türkisch-Islamischen Kulturvereine in Europa" (the Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe). According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it has 1,200 members and is organized into 25 local associations throughout Germany. It was founded in 1987 by a well-known member of the Ülkücü milieu, who is said to have provided the hitman's weapon and wages for the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

The Gray Wolves are also known as the Idealist Hearths (Ulku Ocaklari)

Germany's third umbrella organization is the Federation of World Order in Europe (ANF). Nationwide, it has some 1,200 members in about 15 local chapters, according to German authorities. ANF represents the interests of the Islamic-ultranationalist Great Unity Party (BBP), which is also a member of Erdogan's electoral alliance. Numerous political murders in Turkey have been attributed to the BBP. Its members are also alleged to have been involved in the murder of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul.

This article was originally published in German.

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Turkey calls protesters of ultranationalist attack on Kurds ‘PKK militants’

ByTurkish Minute
March 27, 2024

Turkey labeled people protesting a racist attack on Kurdish families returning to their homes after Nevruz celebrations on Sunday as militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community.

Tensions have escalated since Sunday in Belgium and Germany as Kurds riot in protest of the racist attack, while Turks do the same, believing they are protesting against the PKK, which often deteriorates into a hunt for Kurds in the streets of Belgian cities, leading to a series of violent clashes and numerous injuries.

On Sunday, after Nevruz celebrations in Belgium, a Kurdish family was attacked by a group of nationalist Turks outraged by the presence of Kurdish symbols in a predominantly Turkish neighborhood. The attackers, armed with machetes and guns, attempted to storm the Kurdish family’s house in Heusden-Zolder, resulting in at least six Kurds being hospitalized, one in serious condition, as violence necessitated police intervention for protection of the 40 Kurds besieged in the house.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry published statements on Tuesday and Wednesday about the incidents in Europe.

In Tuesday’s statement, Kurds who protested the ultranationalist attack and opposed the subsequent search by people waving the Turkish flag and giving the “wolf” salute, a gesture of the ultranationalist Grey Wolves, were described as “PKK militants.”

The Grey Wolves is considered the paramilitary wing of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and is banned in several countries.

“PKK militants gathered in Leuven, Belgium, carried out attacks targeting Turkish citizens living in the cities of Heusden-Zolder and Hauthalen. No lives were lost, but some of our citizens were injured,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan contacted 16-year-old Efe Tapmaz, one of the Turkish citizens injured in the riots, by phone to offer his well-wishes, claiming that he was injured by PKK sympathizers. Erdoğan said that his chief foreign policy and security adviser, Ambassador Akif Çağatay Kılıç, would follow the case closely and condemned the protesters as “immoral, heinous and despicable.”

On Tuesday protesters threw bricks at the Turkish Consulate General in Hannover, Germany, which prompted the Turkish government to immediately label the protesters as “supporters of the PKK.”

“On the night of 26 March, supporters of the PKK terrorist organisation attacked the entrance of the Consulate General of the Republic of Türkiye in Hannover,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

It is common for Kurds in Turkey who are politically active in the Kurdish struggle for recognition to face terrorism charges due to their alleged links to the PKK.

Rights groups and international bodies routinely criticize Turkey for using its broad and vague anti-terror legislation to crack down on dissent.

The Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening (DAVA), a new political association in Germany with alleged links to Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), has also entered the discourse.

A press release by DAVA condemned the violence and put the blame on “PKK symphatizers.”

The association has previously denied any connection to Erdoğan and his AKP and has positioned itself as representing a broader population group, including Turkish and other minorities in Germany. However, critics have raised concerns that DAVA has the potential to further fuel division and that it is linked to Erdoğan’s influence abroad.

An overwhelming majority of Germany and Belgium’s Turkish communities voted for Erdoğan and his AKP in the May general election.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for calm on Wednesday, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

“We are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together [in harmony] as we have done for decades in our country,” De Croo was quoted as saying.

“Let’s stop … these demonstrations of support for organizations classified as terrorist,” he told reporters, referring to the PKK.

The public prosecutor’s offices in Limburg and Liege confirmed to AFP that they were investigating the violent incidents but would not provide more information.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to his Belgian counterpart, Hadja Lahbib, on Sunday night after the protests, his ministry said this week.

De Croo said Belgium was “following this closely because there are other key moments in the coming days,” referring to local elections in Turkey on March 31.

Turkey: Anti-foreigner sentiment boils over in Ankara riots

There are approximately 4 million refugees in Turkey, and they are increasingly the objects of hostility — as the recent riots in Ankara have shown. Experts warn that the situation is likely to escalate in future


Young Turks making the far-right extremist 'wolf salute'

 SEE GREY WOLVES TURKEY

It all began on Tuesday evening when a street fight erupted between two groups of youths in Altindag, a district of the Turkish capital, Ankara. In the violent confrontation between some Syrian migrants and a group of Turkish locals, two Turks were stabbed. A few hours later, one of them, 18-year-old Emirhan Yalcin, died in hospital.

The event sparked a wave of xenophobia that resembled a pogrom. On Thursday night, hundreds of people poured onto the streets of Altindag. There, they vandalized and ransacked stores, homes and cars belonging to Syrian immigrants.

These ugly scenes could be followed live on Twitter: Numerous videos were posted on the social network showing the angry mob vandalizing Syrian property and shouting xenophobic slogans. Some of the rioters make the so-called "wolf salute" with their hands, the symbol of Turkey's right-wing extremist movement "UIlkucu," also known as the "Gray Wolves."



Meanwhile, xenophobic posts spread across social networks with hashtags like "We don't want any Syrians," "We don't want any Afghans," and "Turkey for the Turks."

Weak economy fueling discontent

For a long time, the Turkish government and population were tolerant of the millions of refugees and migrants in their country. In the past few years, though, the mood has changed. One of the main reasons for the increase in hostility toward migrants is that Turkey has been trapped in a prolonged economic and monetary crisis since the fall of 2018. This difficult situation has amplified existential fears in Turkish society and struggles over the distribution of wealth.

The xenophobic riots in Ankara came as no surprise to sociologist Ulas Sunata. She says they cannot be attributed solely to the bad economic situation. "Tensions between refugees and locals were never properly defused," she explains. "There have been a lot of mistakes in immigration policy. It was non-transparent and poorly communicated."

Sunata anticipates worse hostilities to come, warning that politicians who kept emphasizing that immigrants would soon be sent back have encouraged this response.

The mood has changed for the worse toward refugees in Turkey

Metin Corabatir, the president of the Research Center for Asylum and Immigration (IGAM), also holds politicians and their harsh rhetoric partly responsible. He, too, points out that many have repeatedly stressed their intention to send the refugees back soon. "They already have an eye on the 2023 elections," he explains.

Politicians promising deportations

He is referring primarily to the largest opposition party, the CHP, which recently ratcheted its anti-refugee rhetoric up a notch. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu declared that if his party came to power he would send all refugees back to their countries of origin.

There are an estimated 3.6 million Syrian refugees and migrants in Turkey, as well as refugees from Afghanistan, many of whom fled the radical Islamist Taliban militia. Hundreds of thousands are living in Turkey illegally, earn little and cannot access the health care system.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu wants refugees to leave Turkey

Are the Taliban causing new mass immigration?

Since the recent withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have managed to retake large parts of the country from the central government. Many Turks now fear that Turkey must expect a fresh wave of immigration. In addition, the Turkish government has been offering its services to the United States as a force to protect the civilian Afghan population. For example, President Erdogan plans to deploy Turkish soldiers to secure Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport.

Washington, it seems, is happy to accept this offer. Last week, the US State Department announced a Refugee Action Plan for those Afghans who have cooperated with Washington and may therefore be persecuted by the Taliban. The program envisages temporary resettlement for them in Turkey.

This does beg the question of how much safer it will be for Afghan refugees there, given the intensity of the xenophobia that flared up in Ankara on Thursday.

This article has been translated from German.

Dissident Selek says won't return to Turkey to stand trial

Issued on: 24/03/2023 - 

'I can't go to Turkey,' says Pinar Selek, who faces a March 31 court date

 © Valery HACHE / AFP

Nice (France) (AFP) – Pinar Selek, a Turkish-French dissident sociologist living in France, will not go to Turkey to face trial, the latest twist in 25-year legal battle with the authorities, she told AFP.

Turkey has accused Selek over a 1998 explosion that killed seven people and, even after four acquittals, wants her in the dock again after issuing an international arrest warrant in January.

In an interview with AFP in the southern French city of Nice where she teaches sociology, Selek said: "You never get used to injustice".

Although the successive trials, acquittals and retrials started well before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power, she said they "are an illustration of both the continuity of the repressive regime, and the new tools of the regime".

Selek, now 51 and known for her critical studies of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and her work with street children, was first arrested in 1998 and accused of belonging to the PKK, a Kurdish militant organisation considered by Turkey and its western allies -- including the United States and the European Union -- to be a terrorist organisation.

She was then accused of bombing a spice market popular among tourists in Istanbul, a charge she was informed of only "when I was already in my prison cell".

But then a witness, who had testified that she had been part of the plot, withdrew his statement. An expert report concluded that the explosion had been an accident. Selek was freed in 2000 with the court citing lack of evidence, but the trial was not over.

She moved to France and pursued her sociology research, first in the eastern city of Strasbourg and then in Nice in the south, and obtained the French nationality in 2017.
'Safe in France'

But back home, the judicial process against her ground on. She was acquitted in 2006, then again in 2008 and again in 2011. But each time, the supreme court cancelled the acquittals.

In 2012 a court in Istanbul decided on a retrial and, a year later, sentenced her to life imprisonment.

The supreme court overturned that verdict, too, and ordered another retrial which ended with yet another acquittal, in 2014.

Then, in June of last year, the supreme court intervened again, annulling all previous acquittals.

An international arrest warrant was issued, and a new court date set for March 31.

"I'm not going to my trial, I can't go to Turkey," she said in the interview. "I feel safe in France, my lawyers have advised me not to leave the territory."

But, she said, there would be "around a hundred people" to represent her. "Parliamentarians, academic colleagues and activists from several countries. There is an incredible mobilisation," she said.

Selek said she hoped to win her own fight against the judiciary, and also wished for Turkey to "enter a process of justice for everybody", including prisoners.

"That country has become a huge prison. People who were untouchable before are now behind bars, great filmmakers, writers, activists, Kurds and many women. I try to do what I can to be their voice," she said.

Her defence in the upcoming trial will be handled by her father, a 93-year-old lawyer, and her sister, a lawyer and former economist.

"She's a feminist, and very active in the social movements for democracy and freedom," Selek said of her sister. "Like my father, she doesn't want to leave Turkey because they want to change things from within."

Would she herself return home if Turkey had a different president? "I don't think the question of my return depends entirely on Erdogan," she replied.

She said her ordeal started because of the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist organisation, which she said preceded Erdogan and is still influential in government.

© 2023 AFP

 

For love of game, Turkey’s top Kurdish football club resists hatred

Many Kurds say they face significant discrimination in the country. Ankara denies the claims.

Sunday 01/09/2024

Amedspor’s fans cheer in the stands during the Trendyol League football match between Amedspor and Sakaryaspor at Necmi Kadooglu stadium in Esenyurt district of Istanbul, August 28, 2024. (AFP)

ISTANBUL –

The slurs shouted by the ultras of a football club in northwest Turkey at their Kurdish rivals is just one way that the decades-old feud opposing Turks and Kurds plays out in the sport.

While Amedspor is the most popular team among Turkey’s Kurds, who make up about a fifth of the country’s 85 million people, it is the most hated by the rest of the population.

“They are not a team, they are terrorists,” said Efe Kaan Ozkaya, a Sakaryaspor fan, standing with friends outside the Istanbul stadium hosting a second-division football match between his club and Amedspor.

Police officers and armoured vehicles flooded the Istanbul neighbourhood welcoming the southeast Turkish club.

As the national anthem played, Sakaryaspor supporters made the salute of the Grey Wolves, a far-right group accused of having killed several Kurdish and left-wing activists.

But the game is a precious opportunity for the 200 Amedspor lovers, guarded by 100 police officers, who came to watch their idols, a trip that is frequently banned by authorities over security concerns.

The club’s home city of Diyarbakir, also known as Turkey’s “Kurdish capital,” remains scarred by intense fighting between the army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2015-2016.

The conflict opposing the government and the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has killed more than 40,000 people since 1984.

Many Kurds say they face significant discrimination in the country. Ankara denies the claims, insisting that it does not discriminate against Kurds as a minority but rather opposes the PKK.

‘A form of resistance’

The players sporting white jerseys with red and green stripes, the colours of Kurdistan, began kicking the ball, as fans chanted “Amed! Amed!”, Diyarbakir’s Kurdish name.

Support, and hatred, for the club exploded after 2015, when it changed its name to Amedspor.

Nine years later, “the existence of Amedspor, with its colours and its name, is a very strong and unprecedented form of resistance,” said Daghan Irak, a sports sociologist.

The Kurds, an ethnic minority who live in mountainous regions spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, have long fought for their own homeland.

The Diyarbakir-based club and its players have faced repeated sanctions, including over calling for the end of operations against the PKK, said Irak.

“Kurds in Turkey are free to live as Kurds privately, as long as they accept to be Turks publicly,” he said.

“Kurds are free to play as long as they do not play as Kurds.”

‘Kurdish national team’

The popular club played in the third division last year in front of crowds averaging 20,000, more than 17 of the 20 teams in the first division managed to attract.

It was promoted to second division at the end of last season, and still faces attacks with each away fixture.

Teams from Turkey’s Kurdish regions and their supporters have been involved in repeated fights during Turkish league matches.

At a match in the western conservative city of Bursa last year, Amedspor players had objects, including knives, thrown at them.

“Whichever team they face, Amedspor is almost always perceived as representing another country,” Reha Ruhavioglu, the director of the Centre for Kurdish Studies, said.

Although the team’s roster has several non-Kurdish players, identity is a key component of the club.

“Amedspor is to Kurds what Barcelona is to Catalans,” said Uygar Ozturk, 43, after a disappointing score (0-0).

“Amedspor is not just the Diyarbakir team, it is like a national Kurdish team,” said Azer Gunes, a 19-year-old waiter who arrived in Istanbul last spring.

Gunes said he wears his club’s colours everywhere he goes, even more so after Kurdish construction workers were beaten, with one shot, in central Turkey in August for refusing to take off their Amedspor shirts.

Seconds later, fellow fan Ugur Cetin railed at heavy policing.

“We were 200 fans for 2,000 police officers!” he said, adding that he was searched eight times.

“Why so many precautions? That’s because of our race.”