GERMANY:GERMANY IS holding its breath ahead of this evening's European Championship semi-final: as the country cheers on its national side, Germany's three million Turks will be cheering on the opposition.
Whatever the outcome, riot police will be on high alert in cities with large Turkish populations such as Berlin and Frankfurt, where the European Championship has revived the public viewing habit that began with the World Cup. Some of the larger public viewing areas have been closed in anticipation of trouble - tacit recognition of the ever-present friction between Germans and their largest minority.
"I just hope there'll be no provocation during the match and that there'll be no pressure put on the German-Turkish friendship," said German trainer Joachim Löw, who has trained two Turkish teams in the past.
When Turkey failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, many Turks and Turkish-Germans easily switched their allegiance to their adoptive home.
But tonight's match is a different story - the first time the two sides have met at such an international level since the World Cup in 1954, a decade before Turkish immigrant workers began arriving in Germany.
Today, many Germans are surprised and a little irritated that second and third generation ethnic Turks support the Turkish team. Turks say it is a natural consequence of failed integration in Germany through official apathy.
The poor integration can be seen on the football pitch: the Turkish team has several players born in Germany, while the German side has players born in Poland, Brazil, Ghana and Switzerland, but no Turkish-Germans.
"The Turks in Germany don't feel part of the German team," said Yildiz Acet, a cafe owner in Kreuzberg. "All it would take is two or three Turks to change that." Turkish-German star Tiger has used his cult Youtube blog - "European Championship Stüdyo" - to call for cool heads after this evening's match.
"It's a difficult situation; like most Turkish-Germans, I don't know who to support," he said. "The main thing is to have a good game, to be part of the best car convoy afterwards and to meet the best girls."