Eight Turkish citizens and one Greek citizen were killed between 2000 and 2006 in Germany in murders that came to be known as the “döner murders” and remained unsolved until last year, when a terrorist neo-Nazi ring was accidentally discovered to be behind the killings. The case was a scandal in Germany because the investigation also revealed links with Germany’s federal intelligence service and the neo-Nazi gang. Recently, the government announced it will pay 10,000 euros in compensation for the murders to the families of the victims. The response of the family indicates it is far from pleased.
İbrahim Yaşar, the brother of İsmail Yaşar, who was killed in 2005 at the döner store he owned in Nuremberg, said: “This is an open insult. We don’t want this silly amount as hush money, we want justice.” İbrahim Yaşar, who currently resides in Şanlıurfa, said the intelligence unit’s link to the neo-Nazis had deepened their pain. He said the German government was, instead of shedding light on the incident, making absurd statements in the name of consoling the families, and added that this was unacceptable. He said he was relying on a lawyer in Germany to follow the legal process, as the family has no relatives remaining. Murat Yaşar, the victim’s nephew, said German authorities distracted the family for years, before the neo-Nazi connection was uncovered, saying his uncle was most likely killed for his failure to pay racketeers or the narcotics mafia. “The German government tried to fool us with unrealistic murder stories for years and this laughable amount they offer in compensation has hurt us even more.”
He noted that in 2007, a German teenager was arrested by a Turkish court following allegations that he sexually harassed a 13-year-old girl from Britain, recalling that German authorities had launched a nationwide campaign to get the young man, Marco W., out of jail.
