Turkish PM Angers Germany over Integration Remarks

BY ADNAN S. KHAN

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Integrate but don't assimilate. That's what the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a crowd of around 10,000 German Turks. The controversial comments came a day before a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss Turkey’s bid to join the EU. But is it just returning Ms. Merkel’s own words to her?

Merkel has become somewhat infamous for saying multiculturalism has failed in Germany. France and Germany have been the loudest opponents of Turkey's bid to assimilate into the EU.

According to Euronews, Turkey resents German and French resistance to its EU membership.

“I have no secret agenda. I am explicit in everything I say. If the reality among the Europeans is ‘We don’t want Turkey among us,’ then they should say it clearly. I will accept it, with pleasure!”

Mr. Erdogan told the crowd to learn Turkish before German. Predictably, Germany isn’t happy about that. Der Spiegel Online says the Erdogan speech offers little help to the cultural tension gripping Germany.

"It was a speech that did nothing to reinforce any feeling of belonging to Germany -- Erdogan steadfastly appealed to the Turkish national pride of people who have been at home in Germany for four generations."

Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News says the prime minister’s remarks come from mounting frustration over not just the EU bid -- but also increasing xenophobia in Germany.

"…Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan, complained that the EU was becoming an inward-looking ‘Christian club,’ slamming a lack of progress in Turkish-EU talks."

But in Erdogan's case, it is not just his frustration with EU membership that is driving his pro-Turkey commentary. The Guardian reports Erdogan is up for general election in June and for the first time Turks living abroad will be able to vote.

"Germany, with almost two million eligible voters, will be the fourth largest constituency after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir."

The Guardian quotes Germany's foreign minister as saying the reason German language is given priority is because all professional level jobs require residents to know German.

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4. Added :01-Mar-11
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