| | | BERİL DEDEOĞLU
b.dedeoglu@todayszaman.com | ![]() |
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| | | The trial of an alleged member of a German neo-Nazi cell in connection with a series of racially motivated murders is being closely monitored in Turkey. The suspect, Beate Zschaepe, is accused of being part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which killed 10 people across Germany between 2000 and 2007. Turkey is paying special attention to this case because eight of the victims were of Turkish origin. The Higher Criminal Court of Munich believes Zschaepe to be the only surviving member of the NSU. | |
We know very well in Turkey that the law is not enough to resolve political problems. In fact, the judiciary's interference sometimes makes these problems harder to deal with.
The German prosecutors claim that this terrorist organization has committed serious crimes all around Germany for many years, but they have not explained how it is possible that only one person is now before the judges. Is the NSU a one-person organization? Or maybe this woman is the only member of the organization who was not clever enough to escape. Additionally, the German authorities give the impression that they do not believe this woman to be very dangerous because in the courtroom we don't see any special precautions taken, such as a glass cubicle to put the prisoner in, as we are used to seeing in other similar cases.
We are of course not going to judge the judges; they probably know better.
The NSU killed all those people to frighten foreigners who live in Germany in the hope of pushing them to leave the country and return to their homelands. In other words, this organization has clearly identifiable political purposes. To achieve their goal, Zschaepe and her accomplices didn't hesitate to kill innocent people. The most important question is whether the German authorities did everything in their power to stop them.
Let's ask this more frankly: Does Germany really fight such organizations, or are the German authorities closing their eyes to them for ideological or political reasons? We generalize when we say “Germany” or “German authorities;” we don't know yet if we are talking about complicity at the government level or within the bureaucracy, or if we are talking about the “deep state.”
This trial makes me think about the case of murdered journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey because it has many similar aspects. At the beginning of the trial, some circles insisted that he had been murdered by some vagrants; then, a tribunal decided that this was an organized crime, but there were no political connections. By saying that, the judges wanted to demonstrate that the murderers had no link whatsoever with certain people in the bureaucracy, the intelligence agencies or the deep state and that the Dink murder had nothing to do with other political assassinations.
Probably the Zschaepe trial, too, will evolve with time and we'll learn that the NSU was only the tip of the iceberg. If this does not happen and if the trial ends with a result that will not be accepted by the people's conscience, then we can expect similar political catastrophes in the future.
The trial also has important consequences for bilateral relations between Germany and Turkey. It seems that Ankara is trying to put pressure on the German authorities and wants to show that Turkey is behind all those people of Turkish origin who live in Germany, even though most of them have already acquired German citizenship. Turkey insists that Germany must do everything possible to assure these people's safety. This is not the wrong position in itself. However, Turkey's efforts would be more credible if there had been sufficient transparency during similar trials in Turkey, especially in sensitive cases like the Hrant Dink murder.
Let's hope the German democracy is mature enough to resolve the enormous problems presented by the NSU case and let's hope that Turkey takes this as an example and cleans its own house as quickly as possible. |
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