|
“We Don’t Want to Be the Jews of Tomorrow”
Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11
Gökçe Yurdakul and Y. Michal Bodemann
In its edition of 23 September 2004, the German magazine Stern pub-
lished a cartoon showing a heavily mustached man crawling through a
cat hole in a door labeled “European Union,” trying to gain entry into
Europe. Some imitation Arabic writing appears above the cat hole, and a
suitcase with a Turkish flag stands next to the man. This cartoon caused
an uproar in the German Turkish community. Vural Öger, a prominent
German Turkish businessman and a member of the European Parliament
from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, wrote an open letter to Stern
calling the cartoon defamatory, obscene, and welcome material for neo-
Nazi propaganda. Öger closed his letter as follows:
A young Turkish man with a German passport, not only born but
also raised here, had heard about Hitler’s beginnings in history
class and said that this drawing was just like ones in [the Nazi pa-
per] Der Stürmer. Except that the Jews would have received differ-
ent noses. Here in the Stern, the nose was replaced by the mustache.
But everything else is the same racist garbage. (Hürriyet, 2 October
2004).
In this article, we attempt to show how interethnic relations play out
between Turks and Jews in Germany. We will explore how the numeri-
cally largest and most recent immigrant group, the Turks, take the small
Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11 · 75
Jewish minority in Germany, pivotal because of its long history in Ger-
many as well as the recent past, as a model for their own future insertion
in German society.
Öger’s reaction to the cartoon in Stern demonstrates that German
Turks are not only knowledgeable about the German-Jewish narrative
but also have learned to use it adeptly for their own purposes. Accus-
ing Germans of anti-Turkish racism per se is only partly effective. Rhe-
torically far more effective is to associate Turkish concerns with those
of the Jews. This strategy compels Germans to listen to Turkish intellec-
tuals because, on this point, the German environment is vulnerable—it
represents a fundamental usage of the Jewish narrative by the Turkish
leaders.
1
We suggest that immigrant leaders refer to historical minorities in or-
der to create a common perception of struggle against discrimination and
racism in the receiving country. At the same time, they formulate their
claims for membership rights within a historical framework in order to
receive political recognition from state authorities. As the above example
would suggest, Turkish immigrant leaders draw upon the Jews and Jew-
ish history because, in Germany, many Turkish immigrants “take Jews as
a concrete example of minority, in terms of history and organization.”
2
They build upon a German Jewish model in three main areas. First, they
compare the Holocaust and the fire bombings of Turkish houses in Mölln
in 1992 and Solingen in 1993. Here, leaders in Turkish immigrant associa-
tions stress the similarities between the racism against Turks and anti-
Semitism.
3
Second, they use the Jüdische Gemeinde (Jewish Community)
and the Zentralrat der Juden (Central Council of Jews) as examples of
how to organize as a minority. Lastly, Turkish immigrant associations
claim minority rights analogous to those of German Jews, whose ritual
practices have been officially recognized by German state authorities.
In the following article, we explore how Turkish immigrant associa-
tions use Jewish associations as organizational models. We also address
references made by the executive members of the Turkish immigrant as-
sociations regarding the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, as they organize
antiracist campaigns. We then discuss how the Turkish immigrant as-
sociations take the Jewish trope as a model to claim group rights. We
conclude by addressing the significance of the integration process of im-
migrants, looking at their interaction with historical minorities.
76 · Gökçe Yurdakul and Y. Michal Bodemann
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
