Austrian calls for Turkish flag removal spark outrage

by Hasan Tosun

VIENNA (AA) – Heads of several Turkish associations as well as a town council member have rejected the recent call by the mayor of an Austrian town to remove Turkish flags displayed at homes since the July 15 coup attempt.

Klaus Schneeberger, the mayor of Wiener Neustadt, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Vienna, issued last week an open letter to Turkish associations and housing cooperatives calling for flags to be removed in the interest of integration.

“Wiener Neustadt is a cosmopolitan, tolerant city,” he said in the letter quoted by the Kurier newspaper last week.

“Due to the high influx of migrants, however, the issue of integration is one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

He added: “I therefore call on all who flagged their homes or balconies with Turkish flags to remove them immediately. In Wiener Neustadt it’s not about domestic issues in Turkey but about how we manage our city.”

Member of Wiener Neustadt Town Council, Meral Karatas told Anadolu Agency on Thursday that this was a “provocative” attempt to intimidate the Turkish community.

"The mayor’s threat against hanging Turkish flags is only for propaganda purposes. Right now, he is considered by the public a hero who has won an independence war. However, the [Turkish] people are just protesting the coup [attempt] in a democratic manner,” she said.

Karatas said that Schneeberger declined to meet with representatives of Turkish associations, calling for taking harsher precautions against the Turkish community.

"The Turks living in Wiener Neustadt are in great fear. This is a case of xenophobia being incited by politicians. The Turkish community is concerned,” she said.

Head of the Union of European Turkish Democrats’ at the Wiener Neustadt office, Murat Gurbuz, said that the flag ban was not legal, and those who put up Turkish flags in their homes did not break the law.

Gurbuz said that this hostility against the Turkish flag was politically motivated, and a sign that “Turks are clearly being targeted” whereas there is no such call to remove flags of other countries.

"We are law-abiding citizens. They want to separate Turks and Austrians. We don’t need separation, we need integration,” he said.

Head of Sems Association, Tekin Ozdemir said the Turkish people who put up flags received letters telling them to leave the country.

Noting an increase over the recent years in racist attacks against mosques and those wearing headscarves, Ozdemir said they expected support instead.

"There was a coup attempt in Turkey and people, in a democratic response, put up flags. We would expect them to say: “We support you.” Instead, they were asked to leave the country as if they were guilty of resisting the coup [attempt], and it was the putschists who were innocent," Ozdemir said.

“We want to live here in peace and in respect for the law, but we also want to maintain our own identity and culture. We do not have any intention of taking over anyone’s country,” he added.

Head of the Kemalist Thought Association in Wiener Neustadt, Tulay Atan also called the ban “a political move" which was made to get more votes.

"Having grown up here, we are people who have two home countries,” she said, calling for mutual understanding, calmness and common sense.

The flags were hung by ethnic Turkish residents to show their support for democracy in Turkey following the failed military coup, which resulted in at least 246 deaths.

Following demonstrations in support of Turkish democracy in Austria, where around 250,000 ethnic Turks live, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz spoke out against “importing the political conflict to Austria.”

*Hale Turkes contributed this report from Ankara