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Turkish soccer players attacked by far-right group in Germany
The players, all from the under-16 team of the German fourth division Regionalliga North team Türkiyemspor Berlin, were attacked by between 10 and 15 far-rightists in front of a local supermarket in Lindow, Brandenburg, on Wednesday. The attackers were carrying knives, axes and clubs, Nare Yeşilyurt Karakurt, a member of the Türkiyemspor executive board, told the Anatolia news agency. “We will send you to gas chambers,” the attackers shouted as they chased the teenage players with knives and axes.
One player, Hakan Mahmutoğlu, was injured in the leg after one attacker beat him with a baseball bat. Mahmutoğlu will not be able to play for four months, Türkiyemspor officials said.
At a press conference later in the day, Mustafa Pulat, the Turkish consul general in Berlin, expressed concern over the attack and said he had talked about the event with the deputy interior minister of Brandenburg province. Pulat stated the deputy minister praised the efforts of Türkiyemspor members towards the integration of Turks into German society and asked them to continue training in Lindow.
“The deputy minister told me an investigation of the incident has begun. We will closely monitor the developments and work with the German authorities in harmony,” added Pulat in a press conference held at Türkiyemspor's headquarters in Berlin. Guenther Piening, the chief official in Brandenburg in charge of migration and integration issues, expressed concern over the attack against Türkiyemspor, a team he said represents multiculturalism and which has made great efforts towards integration, saying such incidents caused him much regret.
Türkiyemspor's Karakurt, also present at the press conference, said team officials were ready to talk to the assailants, saying this could be a better way of responding to such incidents rather than sentencing the attackers to mandatory public service. She also criticized the police, saying they arrived at the scene an hour after the incident was reported.
Celal Bingöl, president of Türkiyemspor, underlined that German authorities have exerted considerable effort lately to combat xenophobia in Germany and noted that there has been a visible decline in the number of xenophobic attacks due to these efforts, although he said the latest attack was not tolerable.
“After this attack, we cannot castigate all Germans, and we should not exaggerate the incident. Yet after talking with members of the club and the families of our players, we have decided not to return to the camp area,” added Bingöl.
Özcan Mutlu, a member of the Berlin provincial parliament from the Green Party, warned that the incident should not be underestimated, noting that the assailants were equipped with knives and clubs. “It is really scandalous that such events are still occurring even 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fact that police officers were so late to arrive at the scene shows us there is still a lot to do to change mentalities in this province,” said Mutlu.
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