Merkel asks forgiveness from relatives of neo-Nazi victims

CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel has asked forgiveness from the relatives of Turkish and Greek men killed by an underground neo-Nazi gang, describing the crimes, and a decade-long botched investigation, as a “disgrace” for Germany.

At a memorial service in Berlin, daughters of two men gunned down by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground described their families’ double pain at the loss of a loved one, and “baseless” police claims of their involvement in the killings.

The neo-Nazi gang members hid in economically depressed eastern regions, Dr Merkel said, but were able to carry out murders from Hamburg to Munich because of the “creeping, disastrous effect of apathy” of German society towards the victims.

She quoted Irish philosopher Edmund Burke that “for evil to triumph, all that is necessary is that good men do nothing”. “Few thought it possible that extreme-right terrorists could be behind the murders,” said Dr Merkel, describing the killings as an “attack on our country”.

“That led to a search for clues in mafia and drug scenes or even in the family circle of the victim. Some relatives were, for years, unjustly under suspicion. That is particularly difficult and I ask forgiveness for this.”

Turkish-German families of victims have complained of institutional prejudice and discrimination among police officers. Indicative of this attitude, they say, was the term “doner murders” used to describe the killing of seven Turkish and one Greek man including a florist and a tailor.

Groups representing Germany’s three million Turkish community have described the crimes as a “watershed” and demand that Germany acknowledge both neo-Nazism and everyday racism in which extremism thrives.

Semiya Simsek’s father Enver, who ran his own flower shop, was the first man to be killed by the gang, in September 2000.

She told yesterday’s service how police suspected her father of being a drug dealer and believed that her mother and uncle were involved in the killing.

“Can you imagine how it felt for my mother to suddenly become the focus of the investigation, to be under suspicion?” she asked.

Ismail Yozgat told the audience of how his son, Halit, was shot dead six years ago.

“My son died in my arms, in 2006, in the internet cafe where he was shot,” said Mr Yozgat.

Turning down an offer of financial compensation, he asked for the street where his son lived and died to be renamed after him.