2016: Tough year for Germany

By Cuneyt Karadag

BERLIN (AA) – Germany endured a tough and tense 2016, facing terror attacks at home as well as dealing with the refugee crisis.

The year got off to a difficult start as hundreds of sexual assaults and robberies were reported during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the northwestern German city of Cologne. The media blamed many of these incidents on Arab and North African migrants.

Pakistanis and Syrians were attacked in Cologne after news of the attacks on women emerged.

The incidents sparked fears in German society about the refugee influx. Domestic far-right groups tried to exploit the events to attack Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy for asylum seekers.

Germany is sheltering the largest part of Europe’s refugee population and Chancellor Merkel’s coalition government is facing growing public criticism due to its liberal policy.

The country received a record 1.1 million refugees in 2015. Syrians were the largest single group by nationality with 428,000, followed by 154,000 Afghans and 121,000 Iraqis.

While Merkel’s Christian Democrats suffered heavy defeats in regional elections, the far-right Alternative for Germany saw record gains, mainly through the use of anti-refugee propaganda.

Merkel visited Turkey five times in eight months as she saw the country as a key partner in solving the refugee crisis.

The first intergovernmental meeting between Germany and Turkey was held in Berlin on Jan. 21. Concrete steps were taken to improve cooperation between the two countries on issues such as human trafficking, illegal migration and the fight against terrorism.

- Tension between Germany and Turkey

However, tension between Turkey and Germany flared when a German comedian called Jan Bohmermann read an insulting poem about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a TV show relayed on public broadcaster ZDFneo on March 31.

On June 2, the German parliament approved a controversial parliamentary motion which described the deaths of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as “genocide”. Adoption of this decision deeply damaged Turkey-German relations.

As a reaction to the motion, Turkey's ambassador to Germany was recalled.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry slammed the German parliament’s resolution as “disgraceful”.

Later, Ankara did not approve a request by German lawmakers to visit their troops stationed at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, something which later became the center of a months-long diplomatic spat.

On May 7, the PYD, the terrorist PKK group’s Syria-based affiliate, opened an office in Berlin.

- Post-coup relations between Ankara and Berlin

Turkey was disappointed with the reaction shown by German politicians and the country’s media after the July 15 coup attempt, which martyred 248 people and injured more than 2,200 others.

The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) was accused by the Turkish government of staging the defeated plot.

A number of FETO members went to Germany after coup attempt.

On Oct. 21, Germany’s Interior Ministry said 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had formally applied for asylum since July 15. Those people included Turkish diplomats as well as military officers and their families.

- Attacks in Germany

On July 22, German-Iranian teenager Ali David Sonboly shot dead nine people and injured 35 others at a shopping mall in Munich. The 18-year-old committed suicide after the attack.

On Sep. 27, a bomb attack targeted Dresden’s Fatih mosque and raised worries over the growing threat by far-right groups in the region. Later it was revealed that the attacker had been a speaker at a far-right PEGIDA protest.

On Dec. 19, a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Tunisia, Anis Amri, drove a truck into crowds at a Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 50 others in central Berlin. Amri was later shot dead by police in Italy.

Germany enters the New Year with the fear of more terror attacks. The ruling coalition aims to soothe public fears about terrorism by expanding security laws.

- Domestic policy

On Nov. 14, Germany’s ruling conservative-left coalition government agreed to back Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, as the country’s next president.

On Dec. 6, Merkel was elected as the head of Christian Democratic Union for the ninth time. She said she would seek a fourth term in 2017’s general election.