BERLIN
Germany remembered on Thursday the victims of Molln racist arson attack in 1992 with various ceremonies held by the Turkish community.
Germany’s integration minister Aydan Ozoguz, Turkish community leaders, senior Turkish and German lawmakers attended ceremonies in the northern town of Molln near Hamburg.
On Nov. 23 in 1992, Turkish citizens Bahide Arslan and her two granddaughters Yeliz Arslan and Ayse Yilmaz died after firebombs were thrown into their home by neo-Nazis. Nine others were injured in the attack, which sparked fears among the Turkish immigrant community.
Mustafa Yeneroglu, a senior lawmaker of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, underlined that 25 years after the big tragedy in Molln, racism and far-right violence continued to be major problems of Germany.
“In order to prevent such incidents in future, it is necessary to bring perpetrators to justice, raise public awareness and effectively fight against institutional racism,” he stressed.
Yeneroglu said, such racist attacks were not only targeting the Turkish community, but also the peaceful coexistence in Germany.
Germany has a 3-million-strong ethnic Turkish community, the majority of whom are second- and third-generation German-born Turks whose grandparents moved to the country during the 1960s.
The attack in Molln was the first deadly arson attack targeting immigrants in Germany, and it was followed by dozens of similar attacks in the 1990s.
At least 184 people have been killed in Germany by the neo-Nazi violence since 1989, according to the human rights organization Amadeu Antonio Foundation.
