Since Cenk Tosun, Mesut Özil and İlkay Gündoğan, three leading football players from Germany, took photos with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and gave him signed shirts as presents, a fiery debate has emerged in Germany. All three players are German citizens with Turkish roots. While Mr. Tosun plays in Turkey’s national team, Mr. Özil and Mr. Gündoğan are part of the German team.
Many observers and political leaders have questioned the loyalty of the players towards Germany. Hans-Peter Friedrich, Vice-President of the German Bundestag, said it was “disconcerting” to see German national players being instrumentalised by the election campaign of a foreign politician. The pictures taken in London earlier this month were published by Mr. Erdoğan’s AK Party, which is to face polls next month.
Some German politicians with Turkish roots also criticised the players. “Posing with despot Erdoğan and even calling him ‘my President’ while democrats and critical journalists are being detained in Turkey is a gross foul,” said Sevim Dağdelen from the left-wing Die Linke. According to Cem Özdemir from the Green Party, the players have been part of a “cheap propaganda show for the despot”. Meanwhile, Alice Weidel from the far-Right Alternative for Germany stated that Mr. Özil and Mr. Gündoğan should not be part of Germany’s national team any more. The German Football Association (DFB) has also taken a critical view of the incident. “Of course, the DFB respects the special situation of our players with migration background. But football and the DFB stand for values that are not sufficiently honoured by Mr. Erdoğan,” it said.
On the other side of the debate, many German Turks believe that the outcry is just another sign that the people with Turkish roots will never be accepted as actual Germans. Such discussions emerge only when the targets are Turks, they say. “In my opinion, the whole hype is deeply hypocritical. I don’t think that this would have happened if a German-American sportsman made some pictures with Donald Trump,” said Suleiman Ozturk, a 28-year-old student from Essen.
Inappropriate time
“I don’t want to say whether the footballers’ decision was good or bad, but I think it was just not an appropriate time considering the current anti-Turkish mood in Germany, mainly because of Erdoğan himself,” said Dilan Sarikaya, a 33-year-old social scientist from Duisburg. According to her, the debate is too politicised while the players are treated “like little schoolboys”.
Interestingly, the response from Germany’s political establishment towards the incident appears to contradict the position Berlin has taken towards Ankara in recent past, which has largely been supportive of Mr. Erdoğan’s government. For example, Germany supported the European Union’s refugee deal with Turkey and continued to export German weapons into the country.
Last week, Mr. Gündoğan responded to some critics, saying the players’ intention was not to make a political statement or to support any election campaign with the picture. “But should we be impolite towards the President of the home country of our families? Despite all legitimate criticism, we have chosen the gesture of courtesy, it was out of respect for the office of the President and our Turkish roots, and as German citizens,” he said. Mr. Gündoğan also said that he and Mr. Özil share the values of the DFB and that “football is [our] life, not politics”.
Emran Feroz is a freelance journalist based in Stuttgart, Germany
