The deadliest racist terrorist attacks in the history of Germany were the work of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a seemingly small gang that was behind the murders of 10 people, including eight Turks between 2000 and 2007.

"Institutional Racism in Germany and the NSU Terrorist Organization," a new book edited by researchers Enes Bayraklı and Esra Sağlam and published by the Turkish Studies Foundation (TAV), delves into the background of the NSU and focuses on the deep-rooted racism that continued rearing its head long after the NSU’s crimes, as well as during the investigation into the murders and the aftermath of the trial for the crimes.

Following the suicide of two of the NSU's founding members in 2011, a third founding member, Zschaepe, turned herself in to the police, who for years denied the murders had a racist motive.

Zschaepe was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of eight Turks, one Greek and a German police officer during a seven-year rampage between 2000 and 2007 that was largely ignored by authorities until the two other NSU members committed suicide.

The book, contributed by 12 writers who are researchers and experts on racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and Germany’s history, is among the few comprehensive works in Turkish on the NSU and structural racism in Germany, home to the largest Turkish diaspora in Europe.

Starting with the migration of Turks to post-World War II Germany as "guest workers," it reveals how the initial acceptance of this new, young workforce turned into hostility toward them creeping into social life, especially in the 1970s and the subsequent decades. According to the authors, this critical attitude became dominant in politics and the media in the 1990s and woke up the monster of racism thought to be buried in the dark past and fueled social aggression toward "different" people. It also argues that the reunification of West and East Germany, where racist tendencies were entrenched, further strengthened far-right ideology that elevated into attacks and a show of force by neo-Nazi groups.

Racism found a new stimulus with far-right groups’ prevalent propaganda in Germany, especially in light of the "refugee crisis" or influx of refugees particularly from Syria, where unrest in 2011 escalated into an all-out civil war. More than 1,100 attacks perpetrated last year are attributed to far-right extremists in Germany. Attacks targeted migrants, refugees or political opponents of the far-right ideology and injured at least 675 people.

On the anniversary of the 2019 murder of Walter Lubcke, a pro-refugee politician, by a far-right extremist, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser acknowledged that the far-right was the greatest threat to democracy in Germany. "This attack is a reminder that we should never underestimate the danger posed by right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism. We must identify and prevent radicalization at an early stage, keep an eye on extremists and disarm the right-wing extremists," she said last week.

The book says that far-right ideology, although portrayed as a "new phenomenon" after each traumatizing attack, is an inseparable part of Germany’s collective memory, listing the xenophobic attacks carried out by far-right extremists, from Turks to Vietnamese refugees. Turks, due to their large population, are among the most targeted communities in Germany. The diaspora has the highest number of victims of racist terrorism in the country, from the 2008 arson attack in Ludwigshafen that claimed the lives of nine Turks to the Solingen attack in which five Turks were burned to alive when their home was set on fire in 1993.

"Police failed to shed light on such incidents perpetrated by far-right groups and racist assailants in most cases. In solved cases, authorities ignored connections of the attacks to organized groups and treated them as the work of a sole perpetrator. Perpetrators were either handed down lenient prison terms or declared insane and sent to mental institutions. This stance of security units can be depicted as "institutional racism." Coupled with similar attitude by German politicians, this attitude encouraged neo-Nazi, far-right attacks and aggravated them," the writers say.

The NSU case and connected incidents are textbook examples of institutional racism in the European country. The series of murders committed by the NSU is one of the most important cases of racist violence in Germany, not only due to the executive-style killings but also the police’s approach to the crimes. Investigators were quick to link the murders to domestic disputes within the Turkish community and some were even attributed to PKK terrorists settling scores with people who betrayed them. Moreover, family members of victims and their friends were subject to lengthy, humiliating investigations by police and treated as potential suspects for a long time. In the meantime, the media contributed to the faulty approach to the murders by calling them a casually racist name: "Döner killings." Even after the neo-Nazi ideology of the gang was made clear following the conviction of Zschaepe, the renewed investigations and trial process were subject to criticism for failing to shed light on the connections of the NSU to Germany’s domestic intelligence community. Several informants recruited by the domestic intelligence agency were accused of having prior knowledge of the NSU’s crimes, and some were even present at the scenes of crimes immediately before the murders, according to probes.

NSU 2.0

Institutional racism arguably manifested itself the most after the trial of Zschaepe and the accomplices of the NSU wrapped up. Soon after, Seda Başay Yıldız, one of the lawyers representing the families of the victims, received a threatening letter signed by "NSU 2.0." More than 100 similar letters followed, sent to politicians, artists and lawyers known for their anti-racism work. The book points out a possible cover-up in the investigation of the source of those letters, despite evidence that some were sent from a police station. It says far-right cells within law enforcement were kept out of investigations into the NSU 2.0 letters, while perpetrators were considered to have acted alone and were handed lenient prison terms.

The writers also argue that cultural racism in Europe became institutionalized as "state-sponsored racism." "The most important issue that emerged in the NSU murders probe is the perception that the racists were protected by the state," they say.

The writers also point out that, although the country has been a migration destination for about seven decades, institutionalized racism is still prevalent in Germany. "Germany failed to integrate foreigners, different cultures into its system and could not provide a life of equal circumstances to those people. Foreigners are subject to discrimination, from education to health services, due to their cultural background. The current system in Germany also promotes racist behavior by normalizing the exclusion of foreigners and relevant racist incidents," they say.

The book says acknowledging institutional racism is instrumental in eliminating it, but the Interior Ministry, for instance, has failed to admit its presence among law enforcement so far and chose to "deny" it. It points out the ministry’s opposition to inquiries into potential cases of institutional racism.

"A ban on access to files related to the NSU for 120 years was only reduced to 30 years after political and social pressure on authorities and only after the killing of Luebcke stirred up a reaction. The state blatantly turns a blind eye to institutional racism with the ban on the NSU files, causing public distrust and increasing racism at the same time," the writers say.

The book concludes that far-right terrorism was ignored for a long time after the 9/11 attacks as politicians, media and academics concentrated more on extremist terrorism. "But it is safe to say that far-right terrorists can find more space and their radicalization will be more difficult to prevent as long as far-right terrorism is ignored."