Turkey’s top cleric visits Solingen victim family

By Mesut Zeyrek

COLOGNE, Germany (AA) - Head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) on Thursday visited a family victim to a racist attack in Germany in 1993.

Ali Erbas, who is in the German city of Cologne to participate in the 2nd meeting of European Muslims, met the couple, Mevlude and Durmus Genc, who lost two daughters and two grandchildren in the attack in 1993.

The house of the Turkish immigrant family in Solingen was set ablaze in 1993 by four young far-right extremists aged between 16 and 23, amid growing resentment against foreigners in the country, after the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Meeting with the Genc family at their home, Erbas wished Allah’s mercy for the victims and expressed hope that none of "our brothers who live on this land" to experience such "accidents or calamity" in the future.

Erbas also prayed for the souls of the victims.

Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens whose Turkish grandparents moved to the country as “guest workers” during the 1960s.