Thirty-one years after the Solingen massacre, where five Turks were brutally killed, Germany continues to witness racist attacks targeting its Turkish population, underscoring the Berlin government's failure to take decisive action.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday, Hacı Mehmet Boyraz, a lecturer at Istanbul Medipol University's Faculty of Communication, described the tragedy as one of the most savage acts of violence against Turks. He emphasized that the attack was a racially motivated act of terrorism that left a dark mark on history.

In the town of Solingen in western Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia, a Turkish immigrant home was set ablaze by four young far-right extremists, resulting in the killing of five members of the Genç family amid growing resentment against foreigners in the country after the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Three girls, Saime Genç, Hülya Genç, Gülüstan Genç and two women, Hatice Genç and Gürsün Ince were killed in the fire, while 14 others were wounded, including several children.

Boyraz pointed out that the "forewarnings" of the Solingen massacre were apparent months before with another attack in Germany's Mölln. "On Nov. 23, 1992, just a few months before Solingen, another racist terrorist attack took place in Mölln, where the Arslan family's home was firebombed, killing three Turks," Boyraz explained. "This incident was essentially a prelude to Solingen. We heard the ominous echoes from Mölln."

Lack of deterrent measures

Boyraz criticized the German government for not imposing sufficient penalties on those responsible for these attacks, leading to a continued pattern of violence against Turks. He noted similar racist arson attacks in 2008 in southern Germany, in Hanau in 2020, and again in Solingen and Düsseldorf in 2024. These incidents resulted in the deaths of Turkish citizens, with some cases being legally dismissed.

He also highlighted that these racist attacks are not solely directed at Turks. With the rise of the far right, many foreigners deemed "not belonging" to the country face daily threats. "We see an increasing trend of hate speech and racist attacks against anyone perceived as non-German," Boyraz stated.

"The persistence of these attacks, not just against Turks but against all foreigners, is due to the German government's inadequate measures and lack of a decisive policy to combat such violence."

Boyraz emphasized that the German government has failed to impose harsh, deterrent punishments on perpetrators of racist attacks. "Following the Solingen attack, four Neo-Nazis were arrested and prosecuted, yet they received only 15 years in prison. By 2008, these individuals were free, able to walk the streets of Germany unrestrained."

"Not only in Solingen but in subsequent attacks as well, the German government has failed. It has not fought the neo-Nazi ideology with determination, nor has it imposed severe legal penalties on those caught. Without preventative measures, these attacks occurred 31 years ago, continue today, and sadly, are likely to persist."

What needs to be done?

Boyraz emphasized that despite the passage of 31 years, attacks have increased rather than decreased because Germany has not learned from Solingen, highlighting major deficiencies, malfunctions and negligence in the country's policies against neo-Nazism and racism.

Referring to former Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on racism in Germany, "Racism is a poison and unfortunately, it exists in this society, and many criminal elements stem from this poison," Boyraz stated, "The German state is aware that there is a problem, but there is an issue of institutional racism. We are talking about racism that permeates every level of the state beyond individuals and groups."

Boyraz pointed out that the local government in Germany's Hesse state wanted to impose a 120-year confidentiality order on the National Socialist Underground (NSU) case files, considering the information in the investigation documents "politically sensitive," reflecting Germany's institutional racism perspective. He said: "There is a much-debated detail about the NSU case. The Hesse state government had imposed a 120-year access ban on the NSU investigation file. Due to reactions, this period was reduced to 30 years. The reason for this decision was stated as 'the information in the documents being politically sensitive.'"

"The result that emerges from this is as follows: We are talking about a situation involving the deep state and intelligence in Germany. It means there is a situation that needs to be covered up and hidden. Unfortunately, we can say that there is a structure between the state and intelligence, and racist structures."

The NSU carried out nine murders of people with immigrant backgrounds and of a policewoman in various parts of Germany between 2000 and 2007. Following the suicide of two of the NSU's founding members in 2011, a third founding member, Beate Zschaepe, turned herself in to the police, who for years denied that 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. She handled the group's logistics and finances, setting up safe houses for the killers.

The ringleaders, Uwe Boehnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, who are believed to have carried out the killings, died before they were arrested in what may have been a murder-suicide.

The trial, which ran in Munich from May 2013 to July 2018, gripped the nation and ended with a life sentence for Zschaepe and sentences of varying severity for the other NSU members on trial. Zschaepe and three of her co-defendants in the NSU trial appealed against their sentences, and the case reached the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in January. However, the court overturned the request.

Until 2011, Germany's police and intelligence services ruled out any neo-Nazi motive for the murders and instead treated immigrant families as suspects, questioning them over alleged connections with mafia groups and drug traffickers.

Haldenwang, who took the helm of the domestic intelligence agency BfV in 2018, said security agencies made serious mistakes in the past, failing to prevent the murders or arrest the neo-Nazi suspects.

But he said the authorities drew lessons from the failures of the past, made significant changes in the organization of security agencies and strengthened units responsible for the fight against right-wing extremism.

The NSU is believed to have been founded by Mundlos, Bohnhardt and Zschaepe. The trio lived underground starting in 1998 with fake identities.

The scandal surrounding the NSU sparked a debate in Germany about institutional racism and the failures of German security and intelligence organizations, which have long been criticized for underestimating the far-right threat.

Neo-Nazi structure

Boyraz noted that there is a serious no-Nazi structure within the German police and intelligence agencies, mentioning that in 2020, 29 police officers were investigated for being neo-Nazi sympathizers and that 364 cases related to racism were covered up by like-minded police officers just in Berlin. This shows that there is an organic connection between the security forces and intelligence, and Nazis in Germany.

Emphasizing that there are certain steps Germany needs to take in combating neo-Nazism and racism, Boyraz concluded his remarks: "The German government has an important task list in the upcoming period to combat this problem and to prevent new Solingens."

"First, Germany needs to acknowledge the existence of this problem not just in words but also through actions. The anti-racism agency, which is affiliated with the government, needs to operate with a larger budget and more personnel. This agency needs to be made more functional," he said.

"Penal sanctions against individuals who make racist statements and attacks in Germany need to be increased. When you give the perpetrator in Solingen 15 years of imprisonment, this does not ensure deterrence. We see that judicial bodies in Germany often issue non-prosecution decisions on racist and far-right attack cases. This needs to be prevented; otherwise, you cannot deter the perpetrator or take new action."

Boyraz continued: "Additionally, mosques and prayer rooms need to be assigned protective officers, just as synagogues are. Sanctions and penal actions against the media, which is one of the areas where racism in Germany is most nurtured, need to be increased. Unless these are done, unfortunately, we will continue to talk about racist actions in Germany."