WHEN THE German and Turkish national soccer teams faced off at a packed Olympic Stadium in Berlin yesterday, it wasn’t just the hosts who saw it as a home game.
For the Turkish side, the visit was a welcome chance to play for one of the largest Turkish communities outside of Istanbul.
Yesterday’s match, with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and chancellor Angela Merkel looking on, was a welcome distraction from fractious German-Turkish relations.
But the European Championship qualifier left many German-Turks in a bind over who to support. “More and more young German-Turks are identifying with black-red-gold,” said Özcan Mucul, a Green Party politician in Berlin.
There was no sign of that in Berlin’s largely Turkish neighbourhood, Kreuzberg. The sea of Turkish red and white was in marked contrast to the summer, when many supported Germany in the World Cup when Turkey failed to qualify.
“We’re born in Germany and are German, but tonight we feel more Turkish,” said Deniz (19) in a Turkish jersey and red-white wig.
It is 40 years since the first Turkish workers arrived in West Germany, invited to fill labour shortages in German industry.
Many of these guest workers stayed and Germany’s Turkish community now numbers over 3.5 million. But many older people still speak no German today, while their grandchildren are the most likely of all students to leave school without any qualifications.
German relations with its Turkish minority are, at best, marked by studious apathy and, at worst, by mutual resentment. President Christian Wulff tried to ease tensions last Sunday, saying Germany’s Muslim migrants and their religious beliefs were “naturally a part of German society”.
Migrant groups welcomed his remark, while conservative politicians attacked what they saw as an attempt to insert Islam into Germany’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
The integration debate flared up recently over claims by politician Thilo Sarrazin that Muslim migrants’ religious beliefs and cultural traditions made them less capable or willing of integrating into German society. Recent opinion polls indicate most Germans agree with Mr Sarrazin and disagree with Mr Wulff.
Despite these tensions, political traffic between Berlin and Ankara is steady. Dr Merkel and two ministers have visited Ankara this year, with Mr Wulff following in two weeks. Beneath the surface, old tensions remain. As chancellor, Dr Merkel supports the EU’s accession negotiations with Turkey while, wearing her CDU cap, she opposes the move and called instead for a “privileged partnership”.
Although this morning’s talks will be dominated by Iran and terrorism, the EU question is sure to be raised by journalists. Despite their disagreements, Mr Erdogan and Dr Merkel know their peoples are inseparable. Of the 22 players last night in Berlin, 16 had Turkish roots and just six were German.