The Turkish community in Germany awaits justice as well as the prevention of similar hate crimes after a suspect set a fire, which killed four Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin in Solingen amid increasing xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe.
One German national Daniel S. was arrested two weeks ago, a Turkish journalist Ahmet Özay, told Daily Sabah, detailing the situation on the ground.
He reminded that Hendrik Wüst, the top politician of Germany's industrial hub of North Rhine-Westphalia, took on a role following the incident while Presidential Adviser on security and foreign policy Akif Çağatay Kılıç and Turkish Ambassador to Berlin Ahmet Başar and Düsseldorf Consul General Ali İhsan İzbul drew attention to the dramatic crime.
Turkish diplomats contacted the families immediately after hearing about the incident. They remained in contact with the German and Bulgarian authorities, visited the torched building and attended the official mourning ceremony.
On April 9, 2024, 15 days after the incident, the investigation prosecutor's office made a statement and announced that a 39-year-old German was arrested as the perpetrator of the arson attack. A day later, members of the murder commission and Prosecutor Heribert Kaune Gerbart at the Wuppertal Prosecutor's Office appeared before the public by holding a press conference. They announced that the suspect was Daniel S. from Solingen, and that he was caught red-handed while trying to kill a German friend who had a debtor's case with a 40-centimeter-long dagger.
According to the German Police, Daniel S. was a tenant in the house he previously set ablaze. He had problems with the landlord and was kicked out of the building. There is no official information about the profession of Daniel S., who shouted 'Sieg Heil' during the murder attempt. However, Daniel S. is from Solingen and the schools he attended and his profession are clear, Özay pointed out.
"Although the German authorities proceed from the fact that the suspect could have committed the arson act for personal reasons, three days after the press conference, a witness statement that will change the entire fiction comes to the fore," he continued.
"Ayşe (23), who jumped onto the street from a height of 12 meters from the 3rd floor of the house with her husband Nihat (26) and baby Salih on the night of the fire and was seriously injured, reveals in her first statement to the police why the house was set on fire. In her statement, Ayşe said, ‘We woke up to the voices and shouts of our cousins, who died, upstairs. We saw the smoke and realized that the building was burning. We opened our bedroom door. While trying to escape, we slipped and fell in the small corridor. It was wet. When we fell to the ground, our feet caught fire, and we went back to the bedroom.' From this statement, it is understood that before the wooden stairs at the entrance of the building were set on fire, flammable materials were poured into the houses under individual apartment doors. This refuted the thesis that the building was burned down because the suspect was angry at the landlord," the journalist said.
He continued to explain that "It revealed the fact that those who carried out the arson planned the fire in order to kill the people living in the house one by one. This statement is also consistent with the observations of eyewitnesses that the people who burned the house were 'three people'. Now, lawyers have prepared a second criminal complaint in light of these facts.
He added that the incident was also discussed in the European Parliament.
"German Turks have constantly given the German authorities the opportunity to correct their mistakes since the incident in 2007, when nine of our citizens were killed by arson in Ludwigshafen. However, they perceived this attitude of the German Turks as a weakness. While we, the Turks of Germany, are trying to alleviate the misunderstandings between Germans and Turks by covering our pain, the German authorities are causing prejudices and encouraging the increase of mistrust with the conscious or unconscious steps they take," Özay said.
The fire that claimed the lives of a Turkish-Bulgarian family in Solingen was apparently an arson attack, German authorities said following the incident.
During the preliminary investigation, "clear remains of an accelerant" were found in the wooden stairwell of the four-story house, indicating that a "deliberate arson" could be the cause of the fire, Wuppertal's public prosecutor said.
Türkiye urged German authorities to investigate the incident suspects to be brought to justice after reports that the fire could have been arson.
Three decades ago, a far-right arson attack took place in Solingen, killing five members of a Turkish immigrant family.
Their house was set ablaze by neo-Nazis amid growing resentment against foreigners in the country after the unification of East and West Germany.
Germany is home to the world’s biggest Turkish community overseas, with more than 3.5 million people. Turks are the largest community of migrants in the European country. The majority of them are descendants of "guest workers" who were invited to rebuild postwar Germany.
The Turkish community in the country has been alarmed by a surge in anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim sentiments in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of neo-Nazi groups and the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which exploited the refugee crisis and attempted to instill immigrants fear.