A German Turk has been appointed spokesperson for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany and the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, known as Union for short. Bülend Ürük will serve as the spokesperson for Germany’s two centre-right Christian-democratic and pro-European political parties, and also head their communications team. Ürük is currently CDU […]
The relatively high number of British Turks to die from COVID-19 has been sending shockwaves across the Turkish world. With an estimated population of 500,000, the UK’s Turkish community is the fourth largest Turkish diaspora in Europe, behind Germany (4 million), France (1.2 million), and the Netherlands (600,000). A comparison of the the deaths among […]
Eight people have been killed and at least five people injured following two shootings at shisha bars in the western German city of Hanau. An unknown number of gunmen opened fire at the first shisha bar, Midnight, located in the city centre about 10pm local time on Wednesday evening. It’s thought the same gunmen then […]
One person has been killed and four others seriously injured following a shooting late on Friday evening outside a Berlin music venue, German authorities have said. Unknown people opened fire around 11pm local time outside the Tempodrom, a multi-purpose venue near the city centre. The Tempodrom had been hosting a stage performance of Güldür Güldür […]
Far-right extremists threatened a Turkish mosque in Berlin, claiming they planted plastic explosives in the mosque complex. On Monday 26 November, Şehitlik Mosque received an e-mail from neo88@web.de, signed by Combat 18, a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation. The mosque belongs to Turkish-Muslim body DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs) and is located near to Neukölln and […]
Officials in Germany have called for restraint between the country’s Turkish and Kurdish communities after five people were reportedly injured during a protest against Turkey’s military operation in north-eastern Syria. Violence broke out on Monday, 14 October, when a group of around 350 demonstrators marching through the western city of Herne were “provoked” by a […]
An underground train station in Frankfurt, Germany, has been named after a Turkish teenager who lost his life trying to help a person who had fallen onto the tracks. The Ostendstraße stop on the city’s S-Bahn underground system will now also be known as Alptuğ-Sözen-Station, according to German media reports. New signs in memory of […]
Later today, Arsenal footballer Mesut Özil will wed his model girlfriend Amine Gülşen in Istanbul. Ahead of their big bash, the star player announced on social media that as part of their celebrations the couple will be paying the surgery costs for 1,000 children in need via the BigShoe charity. He also invited fans who […]
A deliberate fire at a mosque in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, has caused extensive damage to the building, but thankfully there were no casualties. Ömer Oral, head of Hagen’s Ulu Mosque, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the arson attack took place on Saturday morning. The assailant is believed to have set fire to six wheelie bins […]
A Turkish Kurdish lawyer and imam has created waves by attacking European mosques and clerics that are funded by foreign governments, including Turkey. Feminist Seyran Ateş, who founded the liberal Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin in 2017 where men and women pray together, claims foreign influence drives Islamic extremism in Europe, and prevents a tolerant […]
