The reason was that the NPD's leadership was infiltrated by informants from the German national security agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). In its reasoning, the court said it could not ban a party whose policies may have been shaped in part by government agents. German magazine Spiegel reported that there were more than 130 informants in the party, and intelligence services were concerned that more than 100 could be exposed if the NPD was banned.
If we follow the reasoning behind the German court's decision, it is clear that the federal government knew very well what the NPD and its associates were up to since the beginning. In other words, German officials could not claim ignorance for the killings of eight Turkish and one Greek citizen -- apparently committed by neo-Nazi suspects who were affiliated with the NPD. It sounds like a joke but German prosecutors are now asking how the ultra-right racist group called the National Socialist Underground (NSU) could have stayed undetected for over a decade -- until November of last year, when two members were found dead in a burnt-out mobile home and a third, Beate Zschäpe, turned herself in to police.
Some claim there was a cover-up of the murders of Turks within the German security apparatus. Others say some factions within the government supported neo-Nazi gangs or at least turned a blind eye to the activities of these racist groups. In either case, it certainly gives credence to a widely circulated conspiracy theory that the German national intelligence agency has unfortunately become a tool used by authorities to profile immigrant groups and minorities for harassment. For instance, the BfV shamefully disclosed that an employee of the agency was actually present in April 2006 when two members of the NSU shot and killed a 21-year-old Turk. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire.
Further fueling suspicions, a report earlier this week detailed the German government's effort to silence the relatives of victims murdered by neo-Nazis by offering monetary compensation. It appears that Angela Merkel's government rushed to contain the damage inflicted by new revelations of links between the state and racist groups. According to the news report, compensation came with strings attached. As long as victims and their families agree to refrain from filing lawsuits against Germany over the tragic incidents, they would receive the money. The deal was sweet from the start; some victims received their first installment from the Ministry of Justice without even asking for it. A spokesperson for Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said victims' families may be eligible to claim more compensation following an assessment of their situation. For all intents and purposes this is “hush money” intended to prevent further embarrassment for the German government.
For years German authorities have downplayed the significance of racist extremist movements and trivialized their existence, possibly out of guilt for Germany's Nazi past. When investigating the murders of Turks, authorities did not even look into racist groups. Rather, they focused on family members and other Turks as possible suspects, doubly victimizing Turkish families and further aggravating their pain. Considering the record of the German government in this matter, I suppose we have to take the words of Merkel with a grain of salt and approach the situation with caution. In November she promised a full investigation of the murders in a speech to the lower house of Parliament, saying “Our responsibility to the victims is to undertake everything possible to clear up these horrible crimes.” She acknowledged that German security services made “numerous failures” in allowing neo-Nazis to slip through their fingers. The same credibility problem also applies to the German Federal Parliament (the Bundestag), which last month established a commission to study how German security organizations failed to discover killings perpetrated by far right extremists in Germany.
Many analysts believe the NSU and other neo-Nazi groups cannot freely operate in Germany under the radar unless they receive political cover from government agencies or prominent parties like the NPD. It is interesting to note that that the NPD, which gets about one million euros from taxpayers in Germany, continues to expand its support base, especially among youth in economically distressed areas. It has already won seats in two state assemblies, although it has not yet won any at the federal parliament. There is compelling evidence linking neo-Nazi groups to the NPD.
On Wednesday, German police detained a 31-year-old man named Carsten S. who was a former top NPD official in the party's chapter in the eastern German city of Jena, where the neo-Nazi cell was based. He was the second NPD official accused of aiding the murderous neo-Nazi terror group. In November 2011, German police also arrested 35-year-old Ralf Wohlleben in the same city. Wohlleben, who was a senior NPD official in the state of Thuringia, is suspected of providing the group with weapons and ammunition. While hailing these detentions, Turkish officials also worry that the investigation will not find the real masterminds who plotted these murders. The fact that the neo-Nazi group was able to get legal documents under false names and successfully evade detection for 11 years raises questions of who in the government provided shelter for these gang members.
There is a growing sense of frustration among Turkish cabinet members that Germany is not doing enough to expose neo-Nazi groups, but rather taking steps to cover up the murders of more than 150 immigrants who have been killed at the hands of different right-wing extremist groups since 1990. I recently spoke with Bekir Bozdağ, the deputy prime minister, who is responsible for expatriates. He was highly critical of the German investigations that failed to assuage the pain in the hearts of Turkish people. He said that the mysterious neo-Nazi murders should be quickly solved. “Otherwise we will have encouraged the potential killers and invited new murders,” he warned.
This is not the first time, and certainly will not be the last time, that Turkey has warned Germany about the rise of racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. Ankara is worried that the deepening economic crisis in Europe and soaring unemployment may exacerbate the situation for Turks in Germany and other European countries. It is a fact that 68 of the 88 foreigners whom the NSU gang planned to kill were Turks. The list also included a German Jewish legislator for the Green Party. Ankara has established a committee to record and follow racist incidents aimed at Turks in Germany, while the Foreign Ministry has instructed its embassy and consular officers to report anti-Turkish patterns in the country.
Bozdağ was unequivocally clear that the Turkish government will keep a close eye on what Germany does with respect to some three million Turks living there. “We will hold the German government accountable for the safety and security of Turks,” he emphasized.
