Archive for the ‘Germany’ Category
LUDWIGSHAFEN
Germany, Feb 7, 2008. (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called for calm on Thursday when he visited the site of a fire in a western German city which killed nine people of Turkish origin and heightened community tension.
The cause of Sunday’s blaze in an apartment block in Ludwigshafen is not known but speculation is rife in the local Turkish community and in Turkish media that it was a racially motivated arson attack.
The fire revived memories of a firebombing by Germans in 1993 in Solingen which killed five Turks and drew international condemnation. One person in the crowd listening to Erdogan brandished a placard recalling the Solingen attack.
Turkish newspapers have reported that a family who lost members in the blaze had been threatened by neo-Nazis.
By Bernhard Winkler
