“We are sitting on a powderkeg in Germany,” Turkish expert Burak Copur told ZDF broadcaster.
‘Sitting on a powderkeg’: Tension between Germany’s Turks and Kurds
Syrian Kurd Mohamed Zidik, 76, still buys his bread and baclavas from his Turkish neighbours in Berlin, but he knows better than to expound on his views about Ankara’s offensive in his hometown.
Since Turkish forces launched their assault on Kurds in northeastern Syria, tensions have risen in Germany where millions of Turks and Kurds live side by side.
Shops have been trashed, knife attacks reported and insults traded, prompting Germany’s integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz to call for restraint.
“We have a responsibility to prevent the conflict in the region from becoming a conflict in our society,” she said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group.
Of the roughly three million people with Turkish nationality or roots living in Germany, around one million are Kurds.
