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the German Orient Institute in Hamburg: 'The Kurds are an Indo-European people, therefore, as far as their language goes, and as far astheir culture goes, they are closer to Germans -to state it flatly- to Europeansthan to Turks... 34 In his highly praised 'standard work on modernTurkey', Steinbach has defined the Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin asan "ethnically, linguistically, and culturally independent people" 35 .'Ethnic' and 'cultural' mean here the putative Aryan origin of theKurds and constitutes at the same time the German conception of nationhood:"...the German conception of nationhood rests on notions from theRomantic Era, above ali those ideas of the 'Volk' arising from historicaland linguistic contemplations as an indigenous 'Volkstum' based on birththat is accountable only to itself' 36 . Proceeding on the assumption that thesame is true of the Turkish nation, one assumes that there is a persecution,or at least a discrimination, of those of different raciai iineage. Atthis point critical German Turkey journalism encounters a diffıculty: the'racial differing' Kurds are not discriminated against, neither legally nor'collectively'. On the contrary, the Turkish state regards its citizens asTurks, regardless of their origins. This 'problem' is circumvented by defıningdiscrimination as the denial of the 'distinctiveness' of the 'linguistically,ethnically, and culturally independent' Kurds, vvho cannot thereforebelong to the Turkish nation. It is the failure to acknovvledge theracial uniqueness of various elements of the population, in other vvordsthe denial of a racial conception of nationhood, vvhich is considered asbeing discriminatory, yes, even as racist. And so racism is here not to beunderstood as the conventional ideological-biological discrimination orpersecution of an element of the population regarded as 'foreign', butrather as its integration into a secular nation state. Not only is the term'racism' used here in a perverted sense, but also the ethno-pluralisticmodel of the nevv right 37 is implicitly extolled.Because the German experts on Turkey project the German conceptof a nation grounded on biological descent into a Turkish context, theyaccuse the Turkish political elite of incorporating the Kurds into Turkishsociety, "though even as linguistically, historically, and culturally primitiveversions of Turks, e.g. as 'Mountain Turks'" 38 . Aside from the factthat the term 'Mountain Turk' is an a nineteenth century neologism ofpure German origin, German Turkey journalism is unable to evade acknovvledgingthat the Turkish state grants equal opportunities to ali of its34. Die Kürden, Sat-1, 3/20/1995.35. Udo Steinbach: Türkei im 20. Jahrhundert. Schwieriger Partner Europas, p. 349,Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch-Gladbach, 1996 (: Steinbach).36. Hans Hecker: Nationalstaat, in: Handlexikon zur Politikvvissenschaft, Vol. 1, p.270, Rovvohlt, Munich, 1973.37. iris Weber: Nation, Staat und Elite, p. 62 ff., PapyRossa Verlag, Cologne, 1997.38. Ibid.825