Turkey voices concern for increased racism in Europe

HAMBURG (AA) – Turkey’s foreign minister has voiced concern about increased racism and xenophobia in Europe as he criticized mainstream political parties for slipping into far-right populism in hopes of securing more votes.

“We are witnessing a growing number of attacks against foreigners, mosques and Turkish citizens in Germany and other European countries,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday during a meeting with representatives of Turkish migrant organizations in the western city of Hamburg,

He underlined that the uptick in the number of far-right violent incidents in recent years is the result of the spread of far-right and populist ideologies.

“We agree that one reason for that is the rise of radical parties. But what we are observing is that, even a more serious problem is the drift of mainstream parties towards these radical parties. They are adopting the rhetoric of these radical parties out of panic, with the hope of winning back the voters,” he said.

Cavusoglu warned that such a change in the mainstream parties would undermine common democratic values of European countries and create a major threat to the future of Europe.

“I am personally worried. We are now seeing a picture resembling pre-World War II. This is very dangerous,” he warned.

Germany, which hosts a 3 million strong Turkish community, has seen racism and xenophobia rise in recent years, triggered by a refugee crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats have suffered heavy defeats in recent regional elections, while the far-right Alternative for Germany has seen gains, mainly through the use of anti-refugee propaganda.

Germany accepted a record 890,000 refugees last year -- mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.

But ahead of general elections next year, leading figures in the Christian Democrats have favored stricter measures to limit refugee numbers and demanded the deportations of illegal migrants who came to Germany with economic motivations.