A report in the German daily Welt revealed that there are police officers in the ranks of the German police who glorify Turkey’s attacks against Kurds in North Syria and who freely use a language of hate on social media with photos showing themselves making the signs of a racist political party in Turkey.
“A police officer poses on the Internet with symbols of Turkish right-wing extremists. As a rapper, he glorifies the war against the Kurds in northern Syria. The case raises concerns about institutions being infiltrated by extremists,” the article said.
It continues:
“A music video: Tolga K. is standing in front of the Turkish flag showing a salute. Then his image disappears and videos follow that show the Turkish armed forces in action, the warplanes flying over Syria and bloody scenes from the 2016 coup attempt. The lyrics say, ‘Turks will slaughter the heathen. We will die for God, they will pay the price for every martyr.’ Nationalist symbols are posted on K.’s Facebook page. He is posing in front of a flag with three crescents and the grey wolf, all of which are signs of the extremist right Grey Wolves movement. In another post is his photo with the wolf sign with thumb and fingers, which is again the symbol of the same movement.”
The Berlin police department confirmed the report that Tolga K. was indeed a police officer in its ranks and was serving in the police unit responsible for protecting buildings of critical importance, such as synagogues.
It’s noted in the article that the Grey Wolves are listed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a group that ‘maintains its racist and anti-Semitic image.’
“This can also be observed in the posts shared by K. In the song which glorifies martyrs, the lyrics are heard, ‘Do not leave the Muslim Jerusalem to the enemy’, thus to the Jews,” the article adds.
When asked if the police department is tolerating an officer with clear links to an extremist group, the spokesperson for the police department reportedly objected and said:
“It should never be allowed that extremist or ideological symbols are carried or exhibited in the public sphere.”
The article concludes that even if the police department launches an investigation, the likely outcome is not predictable since the Grey Wolves is not a banned group despite their links with extremism. Therefore the future of the rapper, who had also shown up in an event organised in 2017 by a certain ‘Union of International Democrats’, a lobbying organisation linked to AKP, is uncertain.
Serap Güler, an MP for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German federal parliament Bundestag, asked for action on the case. Responding to questions by Welt, she said:
“Extreme right tendencies should not be part of the police organisation at all. He does not belong here whether or not he has a history of immigration. Anyone working here for the German state, but also an admirer of the Turkish fascist ideology, has to face the accusations that they are not eligible for the police organisation, and even not for citizenship.”
Police officer Tolga K. did not respond to the questions by Welt.
