EXBERLINER Issue 163, September 2017

ELECTION 2017
And, even if they’re disappointed with them, I don’t see any other
party capturing much of the Turkish vote.”
But what about the increasing number of Turkish-German politicians
running for office? Election posters around Kotti display the
beaming faces of Canan Bayram (Greens) and Cansel Kiziltepe
(SPD), but Yasaroğlu is unimpressed. He doesn’t feel represented
by the likes of Green Party co-chair Cem Özdemir. “Politicians like
him act as self-proclaimed representatives of Turkish voters, but
have strayed so far from the grassroots concerns of most Turkish
voters in Kreuzberg, Berlin and Germany, that they are seen as sellouts
to the German political establishment – Turkish Uncle Toms.
And Özdemir was very vocal about his anti-Erdoğan stance during
the referendum campaign. That was not very popular...”
Hasan Topraklar, another self-appointed Turkish muhtar
whose field of operation often overlaps with Yasaroğlu’s, agrees.
“Because of Özdemir, the Greens lost
a lot of votes amongst the Turks.” A
social worker who lives in Kreuzkölln,
Topraklar can often be seen on the
terrace of Cafe Kotti or rubbing shoulders
with the junkies of Kottbusser
Tor. “I know them all. They all know
me.” His clientele are mainly Turkish
youths and former gang-bangers he
has accompanied from the schools of
Kreuzberg to the asphalt of Kotti. They
have grown up facing anti-Turkish
and anti-immigrant discrimination in
school and the workplace; many drop
out of school and can’t hold down
jobs. Some have turned to drugs, either
dealing or taking. “They come by and
sit down with me. They ask questions:
what should I do here, what should I do there? They trust me,”
says Topraklar. An atheist, he regards Islam as dangerously intoxicating,
“just like the heroin that is being sold here,” he says,
looking around. At the upcoming elections, he’ll vote Die Linke
but says that a majority of Turks vote for the SPD. But he agrees
with Yasaroğlu that no political group will decisively capture the
Turkish vote. “There is a group of conservative Turks who vote
CDU. Their numbers, however, are very small. Merkel’s policies
regarding Turkey are very much disliked around here.”
Nine U-bahn stations to the west, opposite KaDeWe in a
neighborhood marked more by high-street consumerism than
Turkish Kiezgefühl, Mustafa Tekoğlu offers the same analysis.
The elderly muhtar sits out on the terrace of a Turkish cafe
on Wittenbergplatz, his unofficial office during the summer
months. Tekoğlu, who claims to field the queries from up to 100
“German politicians don’t
care about us. Unless elections
are looming. Then
they come to Kotti and
pose at the döner spit with
the döner man... That’s
what immigration represents
to them: döner.”
German Palomeque
people a day, says that ruling coalition parties have lost favour
because of their anti-Turkey stance. “Turks have traditionally
leaned toward the SPD, but this time they distrust the prospect
of an SPD government because of the policies of the Foreign
Minister regarding Turkey.” Parties like the Greens would have
the potential to win votes, but Tekoğlu again points out Özdemir’s
unpopularity. “Turks I know say Özdemir is not a real
Turk; he’s an Armenian, they say,” says Tekoğlu. “And because
of him the Greens will lose votes, despite the fact that there are
many Green politicians here who have Turkish heritage.”
Tekoğlu came to Berlin during the Gastarbeiter wave of the
1960s, studied economics at TU and worked as a translator at
Siemens, going between Turkish workers and German foremen.
In his experience, Tekoğlu says, “It’s the Germans, not
the Turks, who have failed to integrate. In all this time – and
it’s been 50 years now – the Germans
haven’t learned a single word in Turkish!
But the Turks have learned. Look
at me. I can talk. I don’t want to be
impolite, but I can say to their faces,
‘You Germans, you haven’t integrated.
We have integrated!’ Our children, our
grandchildren, speak German perfectly.
They even celebrate Christmas. But
the Germans... none of them have ever
celebrated Bayram!” Tekoğlu says he
is awaiting “a big surprise” in the upcoming
election: “Die Linke will come
out the winner with regards to the
Turkish community. But many others
will protest by not casting their vote.”
He stops for a short moment and adds,
“Speaking of muhtars, I’ll tell you this:
the greatest muhtar of them all is Tayyip Abi, brother Erdoğan”.
Sultan Bariş couldn’t agree more. “If I still had a Turkish passport,
I would vote for Erdoğan. I can totally empathise on why so
many Turks in Germany like him. Erdoğan stands for religion, and
there’s no one else standing up for religion now in Germany or
in Turkey.” Bariş is one of the few female muhtars in Berlin. Her
domain is that stretch of Wilmersdorf between Bayerischer Platz
and the Blissestraße U-Bahn station. “When I walk down Berliner
Straße, I think the whole street is mine,” she says. She helps people
in her neighbourhood with jobs, apartments, work permits, private
problems. She also arranges marriages, fixing local Turkish lonely
hearts with partners from her home region, the part of south
Turkey between Adana and Gaziantep. “I have contact with people.
And when I have contact with people, I can help the people, and
when I help people I am happy myself. Bariş means peace.”
Before Bariş moved to Berlin in 1989, she voted for the
notorious Grey Wolves, the right-wing nationalist party. She
claims not to care much about politics, but upon receiving German
citizenship in the mid-1990s she has voted for the CDU in
Spandau and the SPD in Wilmersdorf. Today, her analysis is as
definite as all the others’. “Turks in Germany resent German
politicians’ mixing in Turkey’s internal politics.”
In late August, Erdoğan decided to turn the tables by making an
announcement urging his countrymen in Germany not to vote for
CDU, SPD or the Greens, as they were “enemies of the Turks”.
“This was to be expected,” says Tekoğlu. “Erdoğan doesn’t
see eye to eye with the German government. He wants to
influence the elections to show his power. And so he wants
German Turks to refrain from voting, out of protest.” According
to Bariş, the plan is working. “Most of the Turkish people I
know will not vote,” she concludes. n
Sultan Bariş: “Most of the Turkish people I know
will not vote.”
SEPTEMBER 2017
17