Germany commemorates victims of racist attack on Turkish avenue

COLOGNE

A ceremony with an “all together” theme has taken place in Cologne in order to remember the racist incident occurred on the Keup Avenue, commonly known as a Turkish avenue, 20 years ago.

Scores of people convened in order to remember the victims of the tragic attack that was conducted by neo-Nazi terrorist organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) in 2004, as it marks the 20th anniversary.

NSU had organized a bomb attack on the avenue where Turkish people predominantly had their stores on June 9, 2004, and a total of 22 people had been injured, six of them being seriously wounded.

Otto Schily, interior minister at the time, had stated that there had not been a racist motive behind the attack, however, it was later revealed that the attack was indeed organized by NSU, and five suspects were sentenced to various penalties after the last court hearing in 2018 that lasted five years.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, North Rhine-Westphalia Minister-President Hendrik Wüst, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach; Türkiye Consul General in Cologne Turan Kaya and Cologne Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Henriette Reker attended the event held with the purpose of remembering this tragic event.

“This incident remains as a a dirty shame in our country’s history that we all have to live through,” Steinmeier said, adding that “it was impossible to take back what happened.”

Making a speech at the event where numerous people and the victims of the incident were in attendance, the president emphasized that the German state had to systematically monitor the radical rights in the 90s and contend with them more determinedly.

The president noted that the purpose of all this evaluation was clear, and it is that they “desire to do a better job in the future and are capable of doing that.”

Steinmeier paid a visit to victims injured in the tragic bomb attack after the ceremony.