The furore triggered by German-Turkish footballer
Mesut Oezil's angry move to quit the German national team has divided
the country's migrant community as well as provoked renewed concerns
about integration in the nation.
The integration minister in Germany's most populous state, North
Rhine-Westphalia, called Tuesday for the nation to use the storm
unleashed by Oezil's claims that he was a target of racism and
"right-wing propaganda" to mount a new debate about integration.
"We need [the involvement] of more young people with a migrant
background also in the civil service," Joachim Stamp told German
public television. "We need a big debate on the subject. I believe
that this is also an opportunity, if we make it right now," he said.
The dramatic move by Oezil, currently a star at England's Arsenal and
whose father came to Germany with his family when he was 2 years old,
to quit the national German team has led to a rift among the roughly
4 million Turks living in Europe's biggest economy.
"It's a good decision," said Hakan Kaymak, a Berlin snack business
operator, backing the resignation of the 29-year-old Oezil. "Sport
and politics should not be mixed," Kaymak said. "Everyone should have
their opinion, but in football, this should simply not play a role."
Oezil has come under fire since he joined another German-Turkish
footballer, Ilkay Guendogan, in posing for photos with Turkish
President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two months ago as part of
the build-up to the Turkish elections.
"It was a mistake that our President Erdogan was photographed with
Oezil and Guendogan," said Turkish-born Ridvan Turkoglu. "He used the
guys," said the 59-year-old Turkoglu, a customer in a betting shop.
Oezil's retirement was correct in the light of the subsequent media
whirlwind, said Turkoglu. "What if he continued? That would have been
even worse."
Erdogan, who enjoys widespread support among Turks living in Germany,
also stepped into the row by throwing his support behind Oezil.
The Turkish strongman said Oezil's "statement and his attitude were
completely national and regional," terms commonly used by Ankara to
mean patriotic in their eyes. Erdogan spoke by phone with Oezil on
Monday night.
Germany's right-wing populist Alternative for Germany has seized on
Oezil's departure from the country's national team and his attack on
the football establishment as underlining the failure of the nation's
migrant population to integrate.
Nothing "could have burst the integration lie in a more convincing
way," a leading AfD parliamentarian, Armin-Paulus Hampel, said.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has hit back by calling for the
nation to step up the fight against the xenophobia that forms part of
the integration debate triggered by Oezil's move.
"It remains a task for all of us to stand up for the values that make
up our country: tolerance, diversity and freedom," Maas told
Germany's Funke newspaper group.
Oezil had "scored a goal against racism," Turkoglu said. As long as
he played well, Oezil was the best," said Turkoglu. "But if the whole
team played badly, it is suddenly on him."
Taylan Yildirim agrees. "If you don't perform like a German Stefan or
Klaus, you're out," said the 36-year-old, who added that Oezil had
raised a fundamental problem facing his generation of Turks living in
Germany. "The whole discussion reflects the sense frustration that we
have," Yildirim said.
In Turkey you belong to the "German-speaking" world but in Berlin you
are a Turk, he said. "We're people looking for a home ... an
identity," he said.
Yasin Koymatli, who operates a supermarket in the western German city
of Gelsenkirchen, where Oezil was born, also sprang to the defence of
the former national German player.
"Oezil did not do anything wrong," said Koymatli, whose shop is not
far from Oezil's old football field.
"Mesut grew up here, but his roots are in Turkey," he said.
"The World Cup did not go well for the German team. But the whole
team played badly and not just Oezil. Now they're looking for a
scapegoat for the bad tournament," Koymatli said.