The German politics cannot overcome the structural crisis through enemy images

Press Office of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF)- Witten, 23 August 2005

The President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), Halit Habipoglu: “The German politics cannot overcome the structural crisis through enemy images.”

The President of ABTTF, Halit Habipoglu, stated that the discussion of abusing the candidacy of Turkey to the European Union during the elections, which was becoming more and more a current issue especially in the circles of Christian Democrats (CDU-CSU), concealed only the main problems such as unemployment and decrease of buying power, and said: “The parties, who apply for the political power, should produce solutions for the problems instead of being busy with unproductive discussions.”


In the previous days, the proposal of the Prime Minister from CDU of the state Hessen, Roland Koch, that at the party’s election propaganda, his party should lay more stress on that it was against Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union, was rejected, and the party stated that it would not use this issue directly as a propaganda means. Halit Habipoglu evaluated these as a positive step, and said: “The parties, who apply for the political power, should produce solutions for the problems instead of being busy with unproductive discussions.” Mr. Habipoglu stated that the economic crisis situation, in which Germany found itself, resembled the troubles in the Greek economy, which had been lasting for years, and said: “The political parties in Greece encouraged the enmity against Turks and Turkey instead of searching solutions for the structural problems, and this situation has been reflected to our minority as hard repressions. However, it could be realized after years that such policies cause only irreparable harms to the society, and do not bring anything. I hope that the same mistakes are not repeated in Germany.”

The Policy of Migration and Integration Should be Defined Clearly

Halit Habipoglu emphasized that beside the big problems in the economy, the issues of migration and integration presented also a big importance, and said: “An affirmative step concerning the matters of migration and immigrants could not be taken for years. For the last two legislation periods, the SPD-Grünen coalition having the political power has started a serious initiative in this subject matter and brought new perspectives concerning the immigrants. It should be brought up clearly if these positive steps are going to be continued, or not by a possible CDU-CSU government, or in which direction the policy of migration and integration is going to be pursued.”

Mr. Habipoglu underlined that the discussion, which was going to be conducted by the opponents of Turkey’s entry to the European Union, displeased about 2.6 millions of Turkish immigrants in Germany, and said that in spite of their promise they had made, CDU-CSU had not given up to abuse the immigrants as means of argument for the entry discussions of Turkey in the EU. The President of ABTTF stated: “Unfortunately, the Union parties still try to set the agenda with the subject of Turkey, but not with their policies they are going to follow.”

Criticism to Beckstein

Parallel to the statements of the leaders of the Union parties that they would not bring the membership of Turkey to the European Union to the foreground during the election propaganda, the Interior Minister of Bavaria, Beckstein, made statements to Reuters News Agency, and had said: “It is clear that the matter of Turkey is not really a good theme for the coming election campaign in Germany, and I do not believe that the theme should be made more demonstrative during the election campaign. But on the other hand, the matter of Turkey should not be neglected.” He stated that when Turkey became a member of the European Union, she would be the country with the second largest population of the EU, and in a few years, with the largest population, and said: “A European Union, in which Turkey has more power than France or Italy, is for me unthinkable.”

Mr. Habipoglu expressed that the statement of Beckstein was actually against the project of European Union, which was trying to create a common identity and future instead of archaic nation-state structures, but not against Turkey, and said: “As a European Union citizen, I condemn this kind of understanding, which sees the EU as an arena, where the nations compete for political power. The European Union is the ground of common ideals, but not the conquest arena of Germans, French, Italians or Turks.”