How Turks Became Kurds, Not Germans

Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, takes place at the beginning of spring, when the dark season is past. To the German police it is a red-alert day. Even though most of the Kurds living in Germany celebrate peacefully or not at all, in the last few years it has become the occasion of violent clashes with the police. But other incidents, too, are causing increasing uneasiness in German public life: in 1995, 230 arson attempts were made on Turkish travel agencies, banks, and stores; Kurd militants occupied consulates and set up blockades, and Kurd “martyrs” went on hunger strikes and set themselves on fire. The German government has begun to consider laws that will allow immediate extradition to Turkey of Kurds who perpetrate violence. Germany’s President Herzog recently expressed his determination to prevent the civil war in Turkey from spilling over into Germany, and he was speaking for the German people. The surprising electoral success of the anti-foreigner Republikan...