German gov’t complains to Turkey over citizenship-stripping issue

Berlin worried about deportation cases, warns Ankara about EU prospects

By Deborah Cole - Agence France-Presse

BERLIN - Germany has formally complained to Ankara for stripping Turkish nationals living abroad of their citizenship and said the issue could harm the country’s bid to join the European Union, a spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman for Interior Minister Otto Schily confirmed a report in yesterday’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, which printed extracts from a letter he sent to his Turkish counterpart Abdulkadir Aksu.

The newspaper said that Schily was reacting to a decision by Turkish authorities to repeal the passports of some citizens living abroad for their refusal to complete military service.

“Domestic issues in Turkey are being resolved at Germany’s expense,” Schily wrote.

More than 2 million Turks live in Germany — most of them descendants of “guest workers” who arrived in the country in the 1960s — but only a minority of them are eligible for German citizenship.

Germany is concerned that it could be left with a number of stateless Turkish nationals who could not be deported even if they committed serious crimes here.

“Considering the fact that Turkey wishes to be accepted into the EU, it must take care to uphold EU standards in citizenship law,” Schily said, adding that the practice represented a violation of such standards.

Schily’s spokesman, Daniel Hoeltgen, told reporters that the dispute was part of a broader disagreement over a planned treaty on the return of some Turkish nationals. “There have been talks on this. (Schily) was in Turkey in March and negotiated with his Turkish colleagues about it,” he said.

“We hope, also within the context of Turkey’s compatibility with Europe, that we can reach a resolution.” Hoeltgen told AFP that there were about 100 “stateless” Turks in Germany, most of whom had dodged military service.

The Tagesspiegel reported in the same article that Schily’s letter had taken on new urgency for Germany based on the findings of a new investigation by the Berlin state crime office.

It said that a “large number” of rejected asylum seekers who were officially stateless were registered in Turkey under another name.

Among these people were “underworld heavyweights whose family clans were involved in the illegal drug trade,” the newspaper reported.

When German authorities asked Turkey for the register, they received it but learned that Ankara the same day had revoked the citizenship of those listed, and they could not be deported to Turkey.