German foreign minister slammed for mocking Mesut Ozil

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) – Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder blasted Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday for his controversial remarks on German-Turkish footballer Mesut Ozil.

“This is purely and simply unbearable,” Schroder, former leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told Suddeutsche Zeitung daily.

Germany’s star player, who has Turkish origins, quitted national team on Sunday, citing discrimination and racist propaganda he faced in recent months.

In a surprise statement on Monday, Maas, a Social Democrat politician, criticized Ozil’s decision.

“I don’t think that the case of a multimillionaire living and working in England would give us any information on the integration capacity in Germany,” he claimed.

Schroder said, such comments have nothing to do with the Social Democratic views.

He also warned that Maas’ remarks would play into the hands of far-right extremists.

Since May, Ozil was criticized by German politicians and media outlets, for meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in London ahead of elections in Turkey.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Ozil defended his meeting, and stressed that a picture with the Turkish president was not about politics or elections.

“It was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country,” he said.

Ozil said far-right politicians and media used his picture with Erdogan “as an opportunity to express their previously hidden racist tendencies” ahead of June's football World Cup.

Despite hate mails, threatening phone calls, and racist comments on social media, he got no support from the DFB or its head Reinhard Grindel, he added.